Finder
by GRINtelligencer
Summary: Sequel to Seeker, set three months later. As Mitari and Amanuma race a ticking clock to break the bad luck curse on Hagiri, Kurama receives subtle threats from an unknown source, that start getting decidedly less subtle and pleasant as events progress.
1. Unpleasant Beginnings

**Finder**

Dane Soar

The sequel to both 'Hunter' and 'Seeker', set three months after 'Seeker'. I'm back, and quicker than I'd expected. Things might be a little different from the first two stories but stick with me, the ride will be worth it!

Please review, I really appreciate knowing what you think!

**Prologue**

**--------------------------------------------**

**America **

**New York**

**Street**

**Evening**

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The woman examined Mitari's palm with great interest, making 'hurms' and 'huhs' aplenty. For his part, Mitari's arm was getting a little tired from holding it out, and he was starting to think this lady was a real fake.

But a classmate of his had sworn by this fortuneteller, proclaiming that Madam Sabrina would tell him all the secrets of the future. Not that Mitari was too interested in the supposed 'secrets of the future' but he'd never actually had his palm read. And ten bucks was worth it, just to say he'd done it.

However the heavily draped stall, positioned dramatically and strategically in a pool of light from one of the nearby building's windows gave him some doubts. And Madam Sabrina herself, a wrinkled older woman, had him definitely starting to wonder if he was wasting his time. The heavily kohled eyes and an insane amount of jangling bracelets and a very mystic looking cloak, black with silver embroidered stars had all the hallmarks of a street swindler.

She was certainly taking her time in reading his palm, shouldn't something that was so clearly visible on his skin be quick to read? Apparently not.

"Huh," Madam Sabrina said once more.

"'Huh' what?" he asked.

He received a sharp look from the fortuneteller. "Patience, young man. The paths of the future do not align neatly just because you have decided to ask me what they are. Now," she folded his fingers into his palm and patted his hand. "I hope you're prepared, young man, because," Madam Sabrina paused and continued in a voice laden with drama, the sort that portend horrible deaths, "Because grave misfortune and danger is in your future, very close by."

"Oh," said Mitari, quite calm for someone who had just received such news. "Hagiri must being coming for a visit."

**--------------------------------------------**

**New York**

**Stu's Eatery- Restaurant**

**Evening**

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Amanuma took a tray from the stack, loading an order onto it with the quick movements only practice granted. He served food, made small talk with customers, punched in orders, all pretty much without having to think about it. After working at Stu's Eatery for almost two months, he was good at his job.

Lucky for him too; he was a poor college student, and he needed all the money he could get!

"Whoa, Ama! Look out!"

Turning, Amanuma saw a huge tray, brimming with salads heading right toward him. The waiter who was carrying it teetered, the tray sliding toward him. And Amanuma took some advice that Hagiri had once given him. "When something is hurtling toward you, don't try to catch it. Get the hell out of its way. Because if you try to catch it and miss, you're in for a lot of pain."

Which was good advice, he ducked the hurtling tray just in time, it went over his head. The waiter regained his balance, continuing onward, with a: "Sorry, Ama," trailing behind him.

"Ama_numa_." He called after the waiter, knowing it was useless. That nickname was starting to get annoying, now he understood why Kurama hated being called Chi so much.

Leaving the kitchen, he took an order from another table, but was distracted by movement outside. Through the window he saw Mitari, who was pointing at his watch with a questioning expression. He checked his and winced. He'd gotten so caught up with work that he'd forgotten the time, he was supposed stop taking tables ten minutes ago.

With a wave across the room, Amanuma caught the manager's attention, then drew a finger across his throat, asking if he could be cut, or allowed to leave once his remaining table were gone. The manager glanced at his watch, then nodded, and Amanuma went to take his name off the server chart.

Twenty minutes later all his tables were gone, ten minutes after that he'd punched out, grabbed his coat, and left Stu's, a takeout box in hand.

"Sorry about that," he said to Mitari, as he joined him on the street. "I wasn't watching the clock like I should have been."

"It's fine, it's not too cold today." And it wasn't, but soon, fall would pass into winter and the air would go from brisk to bitter.

"Oh, this is for you," Amanuma offered the box to him. "Hamburger and fries. Penance for being late."

He laughed and took it gladly.

They walked back to their apartment together, talking about things of little importance, like the weather and money and work.

Mitari had, not too long ago, decided that a career in law wasn't for him and that something like a counselor or a social worker would be better, so he was taking a lot of extra classes as many of his credits were not applicable to his major.

Amanuma had found a small group of true gamer fanatics at his school, ones who loved programming and creating as much as playing the games themselves. They had plans to go into business, plans that he himself shared.

"So there's not much food left back at the place," said Mitari. "And I don't get paid until next week. You?"

"Yep, next Thursday. Looks like we'll have to dip into the emergency fund and eat out for a few nights."

"I hate when we have to do that."

Shrugging, Amanuma nodded toward the box. "But there's enough for both of us in there, so we won't have to tonight."

"Oh, I wondered why this thing was so heavy. By the way, I went and got my palm read today."

"You finally did it? What'd you get? You will get married and have lots of children?"

Mitari rolled his eyes at him. "Not really." They'd arrived at the building their apartment was in and were in the hall, which was clean, but slightly shabby. "I was told 'misfortune and danger' is in my future. Three guesses what that means."

They were about to start up the steps to third floor, when a person sitting on the landing stopped them.

He looked tired, there was bleeding from a cut on his forehead and he held his arm in his lap, it was an awkward angle. He gave them a weary wave with his good hand. "Hey," said Hagiri. "Long time no see, eh? Are those french-fries I smell?"

Chapter 1 **Unpleasant Beginnings**

**--------------------------------------------**

**America **

**New York**

**Apartment Building**

**Across Town**

**----------------------------------------------**

There were flowers at his door.

Kurama stared down at the bouquet of roses that sat so innocently in front of his door, with something bordering on resignation. He was just home from work and tired and this was the _third_ time this week he was greeted by flowers.

_Though I suppose this is an improvement; this time three months ago, I was finding corpses on my doorstep. _

But that had been Karasu and his revenge, and a different apartment too, the old one had been ruined beyond habitation. This apartment was much nicer, and the rent was better than at his old one.

However, the respectability of the area was making the mysterious flowers at his door even more irritating.

"Oh, Mr. Minamino," Mrs. Abriseio from three doors down paused, her hands overflowing with grocery bags. "Such lovely flowers. You're getting so many these days, someone must have their eye on you!"

He forced a pleasant smile. "Yes, there must be." And it was not a comforting thought.

As the woman went on her way, he sighed, picking up the bouquet of roses and unlocking his door. This was getting to be a problem. People were noticing the flowers and talking. In this part of town, gossip was something he didn't want to be the subject of. Being a demon living as a human meant that going under the radar was important.

More than the problem of the attention the flowers were garnering, the mystery of who was putting the flowers there in the first place bothered him.

It was not Hiei, he knew that for certain.

First of all, Hiei would not leave flowers at his door. He had a key and would find a great deal of amusement in leaving them on his kitchen counter… or his bed.

Secondly, Hiei did not leave cards with the flowers, he knew that Kurama would know who had given them. Setting the bouquet on his counter, Kurama took the card from its plastic stand and read it.

**Thinking of you.**

The words were handwritten, in a curling elegant hand. He threw the card in the trash, then regarded the flowers again.

Thirdly, Hiei would know better than to send him _roses_. Roses were what he fought with; they were more a symbol of killing and anger than love or affection. But here were a dozen red roses, lying there innocently.

A few were starting to droop; he dug around under his sink and found one of the soil filled pots that he kept on hand. Unwrapping the flowers, he touched the ends to the soil and with just a brush of power sent roots growing from the cut ends down into the earth. That wouldn't hold them for long; roses were picky things, and would need more room than that anyway, but for the time being it would keep them alive until he found somewhere to transplant them to.

That was another thing that made him positive it wasn't Hiei sending, or even personally delivering, the flowers. Sending _cut_ flowers to a plant wielder, cut flowers that were doomed to wither and die, was like a slap in the face.

Hiei knew better and usually would send something potted or with the roots attached. And Kurama knew that he was back in the Makai, doing border portal for Mukuro. His next break wasn't for another month or so.

So who was responsible for these damn flowers? And why send him roses, cut, with a wonderfully cryptic message each time?

Breathing deep of the smell of roses that pervaded his apartment, Kurama said: "You know, if someone is trying to tell me something, I wish they would just come out and say it." He put the newly planted rose vine with the others in the window. "It would make things much simpler."

**--------------------------------------------**

**New York**

**Street**

**----------------------------------------------**

"What happened to your arm?" Mitari asked Hagiri. "It looks broken."

"Probably is." He looked at the arm with a sigh. "And, as stupid as it sounds, I broke it falling down the subway steps."

"Seriously?" asked Amanuma with a laugh. "I was thinking it was one of those first rate disasters you always get yourself into. Something dramatic and dangerous."

They had only stopped briefly at the apartment, long enough for Hagiri to wash the blood off his face and Mitari to put the food in their extremely bare fridge, and then they dragged Hagiri out again.

Their friend looked different from when they had last seen him, for one thing he was thinner. His hair was longer, drawn back in a ponytail, his clothes worn, the dark coat he wore showing definite signs of much use.

"I don't know about dramatic, but I was pushed. A purse-snatcher was trying to get away and I was in his way. Just my luck." He made a face. "Which, as always, is horrible. So tell me more about this place that we just have to visit right now."

"You'll like it, Hagiri," Amanuma said. "It's this little café and the lady that runs it is a healer, a powerful one too. She'll be able to fix your arm in a second. And they serve great tea."

"I hate tea."

"And decent coffee too," Mitari added.

"That's tempting; the last coffee I had was on the plane. And I think it was bottom of the pot stuff."

"Plane?" Amanuma asked. "Where from, Brazil? That was where your last letter was from."

"No, Argentina. I had to do some chasing. It's pretty cold up in those mountains." Hagiri brushed away a strand of hair that escaped from the ponytail. "Jeez, I need a haircut. I haven't had time to think about that kind of thing in a while."

"Did you get Ebony?" asked Amanuma, they waited at the curb for the crosswalk light to light up. Most people just kept going across the street irregardless, but when you where walking with a man who had a nasty bad luck curse, it paid to be careful.

A strange look came over Hagiri's face. "Well—"

There was a loud honking of a horn and they had to pull up short to avoid getting hit by the car that zoomed in front of them.

"The light's red, jerk!" Amanuma yelled after the car, waving his fist.

"Never mind that," Hagiri said, suddenly gone a bit pale, "Come on, don't stand in the middle of the street." He grabbed him by the arm and all but dragged him to the other side of the street.

"Was that the hex?" asked Mitari, jogging to catch up as they stepped back into the safety of the sidewalk. "Or just normal bad luck?"

"Probably the curse. It's been getting worse lately."

Amanuma tapped his good shoulder and Hagiri blinked at him for a moment before realizing he still held the other psychic's arm. He let go. "Sorry. I've been a bit… paranoid lately. The plane I was on almost crashed because of some turbulence, my luggage got lost, I broke my arm… it's just not been a good day."

"Well, come on," Mitari pointed, "the café's right over there."

He was pointing at a three-story building, with a modest sign over the door reading: 'Dawn's Café' and large plate-glass windows, through which it could be seen that many customers were demon as human.

"I know this place." Hagiri said. "I've never been in, though. There's a bar downstairs, right? The guy that works the bar used to keep my motorcycle for me when I was in town."

Mitari winced, he was the one who'd wrecked the bike. "I did say I was sorry about that, didn't I?" he'd wreaked it _into_ Hagiri too, it'd been a disaster.

"It's okay. It's probably better that I'm walking these days. With my luck the way it's been lately, being on a bike would be a bad idea."

And they walked into the doors of the café, laughing at something that wasn't actually that funny.

**--------------------------------------------**

**New York**

**Police Station**

**----------------------------------------------**

The station was its usual chaotic self, phones ringing, uniforms hurrying, plainclothes detectives glaring at paperwork. Kurama was greeted by several other detectives, who waved or called good mornings as he headed toward his cubicle, a cardboard container in one hand and folders in the other. A typical morning at the office.

But he knew there was trouble when his partner, Rachel 'Ricky' Halash, waved him over to their desks. She usually was asleep with her head on her paperwork until he brought the morning's coffee.

And Ricky was grinning, something at was never good. She was a few years older than him, had a habit of dying her hair at seemingly random points, and was shamelessly devoted to her girlfriend of the month.

"Your hair's highlighted," he commented, handing her one of the coffees.

She flicked her hair back over her shoulder with another grin. "Yes it is. I thought it was time for a change. Speaking of changes, don't try to change the subject before I even start. Look at your desk."

He saw to his horror that there was a bouquet of roses resting on his keyboard. With a groan he set down his coffee and folders, sitting in his chair and taking the card from this most recent bundle of flowers.

**So good to see you again.**

"So, do you have an argument with Hiei or something?" Ricky asked.

"No," he threw this most recent card away but put the flowers to the side. Just because they came from a mysterious and irritating source didn't mean he should kill innocent greenery. "I don't know who it's from. Did you see who put these here?"

She shook her head. "But I wasn't really paying attention." She saw his tense expression and lowered her voice. "Is something wrong? Are you in some sort of trouble again, like last time?"

"Last time was a rather special event, I doubt that something like that will happen again. But… I do have a bad feeling about the flowers. Tell me if you see someone put more on my desk."

"Will do," she said, taking a gulp of her coffee and sighing with the contentedness of one who lives on caffeine.

They were in for a slow day, having just wrapped up a spectacularly messy case yesterday, and would mean they probably had a least a day to finish up paperwork and such as thanks from the Boss for managing to solve the case so quickly and cleanly.

And by the end of the shift nothing more exciting had happened than Montes, in the cubicle next to him, being swamped by calls about her case. With a sympathetic glance at the stressed detective, he said goodbye to Ricky and left.

In the parking garage he unlocked his car and froze.

There was bouquet of flowers lying on the seat. Inside his _locked_ car.

"That's it," he muttered as he reached over to pick them up and read the card. "This is getting ridiculous." The card said:

**Fondest wishes. On your **_**trip.**_

**-D**

"What trip?" he asked aloud in confusion, turning the card over to see if there was anymore. _And who is D? Did I know anyone whose name began with D?_ None came to him off the top of his head.

That was when Kurama felt it, the merest hint of a feeling that made the hair on the back of his neck prickle. Someone was watching him; he whipped around to stare into the shadows of the parking garage, the bunch of flowers held high like the weapon he could make them into if it was necessary.

There was a rustle in the darkness, like feathers, and the merest impression of form as whoever it was bolted for an exit. They were gone before he could even so much as see the face of the one who was watching him, but he knew one thing for sure; no human could move that fast.

Slowly, Kurama lowered the bouquet. Feathers? It couldn't be Karasu, he was locked away in the tightest cell that Spirit World could put a soul in, Koenma had assured him of that.

_Then who in the Makai was that? And _what_ do they want?_

**----------------------------------------------**

**"This world of ours in not as it seems,**

**the monsters are real but they're not in your dreams.**

**Learn what you can from the beasts you defeat**

**You'll need it for some of the people you'll meet!"**

**(Goodnight Demonslayer~ Voltaire)**

**----------------------------------------------**

**TBC**


	2. Undertaking A Job

**Finder**

Dane Soar

My sincerest apologies to everyone who was reaching for their YYH collections after the last chapter, our latest villain isn't someone you'll find there. For those who've just tuned in, sorry, it's not Karasu. Good guess though.

As for the typos, I look for them and look for them. My Editor looks and looks for them. But some _always_ sneak by. By this point I've accepted this inevitability.

Thank you to the reviewers, please keep it up!

Chapter 2 **Undertaking A Job**

**----------------------------------------------**

**New York**

**Dawn's Café**

**----------------------------------------------**

The lighting in the café was dim, though not gloomy, just enough that there were shadows in the corners. More than enough for someone to lurk in if they didn't particularly want to be seen.

Dawn's Café had a reputation as a safe haven; no matter who you were, or what you might have done, or whom you were running from, inside these doors you would be protected. By quite a few things.

The moment Hagiri crossed the threshold of the double doors he felt something. It was a great deal like stepping into someone's Territory, in the old days, but that wasn't a technique often used by psychics on this side of the ocean.

Amanuma noticed him pause. "It's okay. I did that the first time I came here too. It's just the wards."

"Wards?" Hagiri asked, cautiously following the two.

"Yeah, antiviolence wards," Mitari explained. "the psychic who runs this place, Dawn, is really powerful. Passive stuff mostly, healing and wards. The ones she put on this place throw out anyone who has so much as a violent thought. This is probably the safest place in New York."

"And it's a neat place in general," Amanuma added. "You can meet some pretty interesting people here, human and demon."

It was pleasantly warm inside, the heat a relief from the chill outside. There were booths along the walls, some tables scattered across the floor, but Mitari and Amanuma led Hagiri up to the bar, where they each took up a stool.

"Dawn!" Amanuma called out to the person behind the bar. "Do you still have that awesome lemon tea?"

The person turned from the row of coffee and tea pots, with a smile. "Amanuma, good to see you again. You're in luck, I have a fresh pot I just made today."

She was a girl who had both feet firmly on the bridge to womanhood. Her hair was black, falling down her back in ruler straight strands; her eyes were dark, in a round, sweet face. A promising bulge at her stomach hinted at why she practically glowed with expectant motherhood.

She smiled, a bright and pretty thing that gave her dimples. "Ah, Mitari, you're here too. And you've brought a friend; is this the one you told me about?"

Amanuma patted Hagiri on the shoulder. "Yep, this is Hagiri. Hagiri, this is Dawn, she runs this place with her…"

"Husband," Dawn put in. "For lack of a better word." She held up her left hand, which was ringless, but put the other one on her rounded stomach. "Boyfriend is a bit light for the circumstances. So is this the friend you two told me about? The one with the horrible bad luck?" With the hand she'd held up to show she had no ring, Dawn tapped the cut on Hagiri's forehead. It sealed itself neatly.

He reached up to touch where the cut had been, the skin was smooth as if the cut had never been there. "You're good," said Hagiri. "Even the other healer I know doesn't heal that fast." A twitch around his broken arm made him look at it. To his amazement feeling was returning to his fingers; he moved them, held up his hand, and stared at in shock. She'd healed his arm without even touching it. This was a _powerful_ psychic.

"I have a lot of practice." Dawn shrugged. "Not many demons can go to a hospital, lots stagger in here for me to patch up. Now, Amanuma, I know you like lemon tea and Mitari, you like mint, but how about you, new guy?"

"Coffee. Black."

She shook her head. "Ah, coffee. I always thought it smelled better than it tasted. Here." Picking up a pot from behind her, Dawn set out three cups and filled them. "I'm more of a tea person, to tell you the truth." In spite of the fact she was pregnant, she moved with the easy fluidity of someone who knew what they were doing.

Mitari raised his teacup to his face, breathing in the pleasant smell of mint and sighing at the warmth on his still cold face. "So business must be good with it being so cold outside."

"You have no idea," said Dawn. "it's not just people coming in here to warm up. For some reason, the colder it gets, the more trouble people get into."

"What does that have to do with business?" asked Hagiri.

"I help people in trouble, demons and some psychics too. It's something of a job." She made a face. "It can be a bit annoying sometimes though. But if you need healing or even just a safe place to stay for the night, this is where you go. That sort of business tends to spike in cold weather."

"That's kind of weird," Amanuma commented.

"I know, it is," replied Dawn.

"I hate to interrupt this lovely little chat," said a voice from behind the three, "but I need to have a talk with one of these boys."

And to Hagiri, it was a familiar voice. He winced, then turned. "Hello, Menou."

**--------------------------------------------**

**Apartment Building**

**Across Town**

**----------------------------------------------**

Kurama smelled blood. Almost as soon as he stepped out of the elevator, in fact. It wasn't a smell that boded well. His hand tightened around the two bouquets he had from work and his car.

There was a trash bag in front on his door. And it was what the blood smell came from. Cautiously, he advanced on it.

_Please, don't let that be bits of someone I know,_ he thought as he reached for the bag. Pulling the top of the bag open, he looked inside.

Glassy eyes stared upward at him from russet fur. It was a dead fox. _That's not a message I like. It's better than body parts, but not by much._

There was an envelope tucked next to the fox's bottlebrush tail that was addressed:

**To Youko**

In the same elaborate, formal script as the cards with the flowers had been written in. He tucked the envelope into his pocket to read later, then touched the fox delicately between the eyes.

Feeling no trace whatsoever of demonic power in the body, Kurama sighed with relief. Just an animal, then, not a lower rank kitsune. The body was still warm…

A flash of white at the corner of his sight made him glance toward the door that led to the stairwell, just in time to see it closing after someone. That someone had been in a significant hurry.

He dropped his bag and the bouquets, and took off after the runner. Dashing down the stairs, taking the corners at speeds only a demon could manage without breaking an ankle, Kurama was positive that the one he was chasing had to be the mysterious gift giver or, at least, someone sent by them. Why else would they be running from him?

They had to be a demon, too, or they would have never been able to run so fast. Had the runner been human he would have already caught them. As it was, the demon reached the end of the stairs well ahead of him.

From over the banister Kurama saw a quick glimpse, and it was of silvery white hair that quickly vanished from view. He vaulted the rail, foregoing the last set of stairs and hit the ground running.

Bursting out into the lobby of the building he saw the demon fling the front door open and dart out into the street. But Kurama kept on their tail, and easily kept track of the shock of white hair as it bobbed among the people on the street. When it slipped into a smaller side street he followed, and somehow in that short space of time lost him.

He frowned, he knew he'd seen the demon turn here. Where had they gone—

Someone grabbed him by the hair from behind him. Kurama ignored the pain of pulled hair, reaching for the power that would make the rosebud hidden in his hair sever the hand of however had him.

But then they spoke and the voice was familiar enough to make him pause, though he couldn't _quite_ place who it was. "You're a real pain, Youko, you really are." The demon was male, with a smooth clever voice. "And cursed slow on the uptake sometimes. Now go to sleep."

And, to Kurama's momentary surprise, he did just that.

**--------------------------------------------**

**Dawn's Café**

**----------------------------------------------**

Menou was the butterfly demon, her wings hidden at the moment, her dark curling hair bound up in an elaborate knot at the base of her neck and her eyes the color of old dollar bills. And she was one of the last people Hagiri wanted to see at the moment. She was a sniper, an ace assassin, and he owed her a favor.

"Sorry Dawn, but I need Hagiri for a few minutes," she said.

"What for?" asked Hagiri, suspiciously.

"Just a little chat," Menou told him, ignoring the fact that Amanuma and Mitari were giving her very unpleasant looks, sensing from Hagiri's reaction that this woman wasn't anyone good. "You do, after all, owe me."

"Yes…" admitted Hagiri. "that's a good point. Look," he turned to Amanuma and Mitari. "I'll be right back. Sorry, but it's business."

"Now?" Amanuma asked. "Are you sure that's a good idea? With the—"

Mitari poked him in the arm to make him stop. "We'll wait here. Just don't take too long."

"I won't," said Hagiri, as he stood and followed Menou. They settled into a booth on the opposite wall, out of earshot.

The moment they started speaking to each other, Mitari and Amanuma leaned closer to Dawn, who had watched the exchange without comment.

"Well?" asked Amanuma.

She bit her lip. "Your friend had a _very_ nasty bad luck curse on him."

"It's like we told you," Mitari said. "and it's been getting real bad lately."

"I bet it has. He, Hagiri you said his name was? His natural affinity is for good luck, but the curse makes him attract bad luck. The two opposing forces don't do good things to the health of the person in question." Dawn said. "It's a lot of strain."

"That explains why Hagiri always survives trouble by the skin of his teeth," said Amanuma thoughtfully. "The good luck pulls through for him in the end. So if things keep on like they are, with the curse and all, you're saying he'll die?"

"If some event doesn't kill him, the force of the pull in the two directions will eventually," Dawn said, refilling the sugar dish. "I'm really sorry I can't give you better news. That curse must have been on him for a long time, it's worked its way in very deep."

"But you can heal him, right?" asked Mitari. "You said to bring him here so you could see for yourself and we did just that as soon as he showed up again."

But Dawn shook her head. "I can't. Wait, let me finish." She held up a hand to silence them as they started to exclaim. "I can't out right heal him. If I flood him with power and that curse has worked itself in too deep, I'd probably kill him before I cure him. It's a fine tune healing and," one hand went to her stomach. "My energy is a little less steady than usual, what with the baby on the way. I'm just a tad off-kilter."

"You can't do anything, then?" demanded Amanuma, his face falling. "But if you can't cure him he's going to die!" His voice rose and Mitari waved at him to be quiet, they didn't want Hagiri overhearing them.

"I can't outright heal him, is what I'm saying."

"Then you _can_ do something?" asked Amanuma, catching the diction.

"Just a second." She turned to fill a customer's drink, then continued when the demon drifted away to a table. "There is another method we could try. You would have to get some things for me, though."

"That's no problem, we can get whatever you need." Mitari said.

"Good. If you gather some things for me I think I could safely remove the hex from your friend without much harm to him. At least, I think. This is something of a unique situation."

"What do you need?" Amanuma asked intently.

"I'll have to write it down, it's a long list." After some rustling around under the bar for a moment or two Dawn produced paper and pen and began to write. Though she didn't have to turn the paper over to finish the list she handed to Mitari was still long.

Amanuma leaned over Mitari's shoulder to read it. "I don't even know what some of this stuff is! What the hell is stillwort rockweed?"

"A plant from the Makai," Dawn said. "And the feti mushroom is from the Makai too."

"Maybe we can ask Kurama to take us there," Mitari suggested to Amanuma.

"Or even better, maybe he'd got some of this stuff on hand."

"I hope so, the fast we get this stuff the better. Look, some isn't that hard to get, a burnt out light bulb, a raven's feather, some rusty chain, a dead pen; we've got some of that around the apartment."

"I can help with a least one of those," Dawn said. "The raven's feather."

"Do you have one on hand?"

"No, Amanuma, but I do have the next best thing. I know someone who does. Radames? Can you come over here?" she called, to someone who sat a little way down the bar.

The man who stood was not quite… right. He was thin to the point of awkwardness, and his hair was a shock of glossy black feathers. "Yes, Lady Dawn?" he asked, approaching. "Is there something you need?"

"Amanuma, Mitari, this is Radames, a raven demon that works for my… husband. And he has a rather unfortunate habit of being formal. Say hello Radames,"

The rather uncomfortable looking Radames bowed his head in greeting to the two psychics. There was something in way he drew his shoulders up around himself and peered at them with nervous interest that was very birdlike.

"Wait," Mitari said. "A raven demon? So those would be…" he stared at the feathers on Radames' head eagerly.

"Can we have a feather?" asked Amanuma. "We really need one."

"Please Radames," Dawn said. "It's important."

One skeletal hand went to the feathers protectively. "But they're attached! And I need them to fly and…" he looked from the eager Mitari and Amanuma to Dawn. "Very well, Lady Dawn." With a wince he plucked on long black feather and set it delicately on the bar. "Is there anything else you require?"

"No, Radames. I'm sorry to bother you."

The raven demon left as Mitari took the feather and turned it between his fingers, watching the purple light glint off it. "We'll have to go back to the apartment," he commented to Amanuma. "Some of this stuff we can find there and if we're going to end up carrying all this stuff we'll need a bag."

"We can use your book bag," suggested Amanuma.

"Use his book bag for what?" asked Hagiri, who had returned, unnoticed. He looked worried and was apparently too distracted to notice how they jumped.

"Nothing," Mitari said quickly. After all, he and Amanuma were going to break the curse, so Hagiri didn't need to know he was in danger. "What's wrong?"

"I've got a job," said Hagiri, rubbing his face wearily. "I have to pick up some gear. Sorry I can't hang around."

"When?" Amanuma demanded, then winced when Hagiri gave him a strange look. "I mean, when's your job. Today?"

"No, tomorrow. Afternoon."

"Are you sure you should go on a job considering?"

"I don't have much of a choice on this one." Hagiri shrugged. "Anyway, I've got to go. How much for the coffee?" he asked Dawn.

"On the house," she said, with a smile. "Take care of yourself."

He gave her a confused look. "…sure. See you Amanuma, Mitari." And he left, joining Menou, who was waiting for him at the door with her arms crossed, looking amused.

"He's gonna get himself killed." Amanuma said, looking after him. "What an idiot, trying to assassinate someone when he's a magnet for bad luck."

"No," said Mitari grimly. "He's not going to have time to get himself killed, because we're going to break the curse before tomorrow."

"Do you think we can do it in time? This is a long list." Amanuma said doubtfully.

"We can hurry, and we just need to gather these things, right?" he asked Dawn.

"I can do the rest." She replied. "You just need to get the ingredients, I'll deal with the preparations."

"Thank you," Mitari told her. "Really, I mean it. We appreciate your help; I know you probably have plenty of other things to worry about."

She waved a hand. "It's no problem, honestly. I just feel bad that I can't do more."

Amanuma took up the list and tucked it into his pocket. "Okay, let's swing by the apartment for the bag and get down to searching."

"Before you go," Dawn scribbled two things on anther piece of paper, then handed them over. "this is the address of a person who sells some of the more hard-to-find things you're looking for, it should help make your search shorter. And my phone number, call me if there's a problem."

And, taking the paper, the two psychics exited.

Dawn watched them leave her café thoughtfully, hand on her stomach. "This is going to be _interesting_, I'm afraid. And interesting isn't always safe. Oh, dear."

**--------------------------------------------**

**Street**

**----------------------------------------------**

The last thing Kurama had seen before the sleep had overcome him was boots that were walking away in what was clearly a smug swagger.

Which was maddeningly familiar…

He woke with someone leaning over him. "Hey, mister, you okay? You want me to call an ambulance?" The person silhouetted against the sky was no one Kurama knew, they must be a random passerby.

His head was a bit muzzy, but when he sat up and shook it the remains of sleep faded away. "No," he told the man. "No, don't call an ambulance, I'm fine."

"Dude, you were out cold! I saw you go down."

"I'm fine, it's kind of you to worry. I've just… just been all night is all."

The man eyed him suspiciously. "Right. Whatever you say."

As he headed back inside to his apartment, Kurama had quite a lot to think on. First and foremost, what the _hell_ had that been back there? He'd passed out, and he had absolutely no idea how the demon had done it. No poison, no nerve punching, no sleepy power, no blows to the head, just one minute he'd been standing with the demon behind him and then next he'd gone to sleep.

_It could be his power,_ Kurama mused. _I think I used to know someone who could do that, back in the old days. But as, I recall, it's not a common power. I wonder if it was the fellow I used to know. _He shook his head. _No, it can't be him. I'm pretty sure he died or fell off the underworld map or something similar._

In the corridor he gathered up the things he dropped and, with some distaste, the garbage bag before unlocking his door.

So if it's not my old contact, let's suppose it's someone who has a similar power to him. If that were true, then it wouldn't be much of a stretch to suppose they were a similar type of demon. Following that line of thought…

_The demon I knew was also a kitsune._

His grip on the flowers tightened, though he didn't notice the crackling plastic.

_That would make sense; it's another kitsune that's doing this! One that I've made angry, somehow. That explains the threats._

_And by the way he put me out so easily… he might be more than my match. But if that's true, then why hasn't he just tried to fight me one on one? Why use this roundabout method of approaching me? Am I just not worth the effort of getting rid of or something?_

Noticing his white-knuckle grip on the bouquet Kurama forced his hand to uncurl.

_I need to know more._

_Especially if I plan on coming through this with my skin intact. You know, now would be a good time for Hiei to visit; I could use some backup._

**----------------------------------------------**

"**How delightful, this game of cat and mouse has given me quite a thrill." **

**(Kurodo Akabane~ Get Backers)**

**----------------------------------------------**

**TBC**


	3. Unfair Moves

**Finder**

Dane Soar

Here's a super-special Christmas update and sorry it was so long in coming! Please review, thanks.

Chapter 3 **Unfair Moves**

**--------------------------------------------**

**Somewhere…**

**Night**

**----------------------------------------------**

"What do you have to tell me, Radames?" A streetlight's illumination glinted off pale, silver white hair and golden eyes, the rest of the kitsune was hidden in darkness. "What is Youko doing now?"

The raven demon kneeling before the other demon trembled as the other placed a graceful hand on his feathered hair. "H-he returned to his apartment, My Lord, after he woke from the sleep you placed on him." Radames froze as his Lord ran his hand along his feathers, he could feel the claws, so close to his scalp and they were part of the reason his voice shook. "T-he kitsune seemed to in deep thought, but he d-did not leave his apartment again."

"Very good, Radames." The hand patted his head. "You do such good surveillance. Keep watch on Youko a little longer, I want to make the second strike tonight, after he goes to sleep. Are you sure he did not see you in that parking garage?"

"No, My Lord. Or i-if he did, it was only a glimpse."

"Good." The hand, and thus the claws, left his head and Radames relaxed just the smallest margin. "Youko must not have made the connection between the threats and me yet. A shame, but then again, the rumor is still that I am dead. He'll make the connection soon, I have no doubt, if he's half as clever a boy as I recall. And when he finally does… well, I'll get what I finally want then. And about time too." The golden eyes seemed to turn inward, as if the kitsune was thinking. "This is all very good. Now go, Radames, I want to get home _sometime_ tonight."

"M-my Lord," Radames said, and quickly, before the other could loose patience with him he blurted out. "About your wife. She is getting herself into something, My Lord."

"Again?" the kitsune said on a sigh. "She gets herself into more mischief… well, one problem at a time. Go back to Youko's apartment."

"But if she is in trouble—" started Radames.

An upraised hand cut him off. "Then I will deal with it. Now go before I pluck the feathers from your head and make myself an extremely unfashionable scarf."

There was a rustle of feathers, a small cloud of smoke, and then a large raven hurriedly took to the sky.

**--------------------------------------------**

**Kurama's Apartment**

**----------------------------------------------**

It wasn't until much later, when Kurama picked up his coat to get something from the pocket, that he remembered the letter that had been with the grizzly gift at his door. Retrieving it, he opened the envelope and read it.

**Youko,**

**You seem not to be taking the hint and my patience is nearing its end. You have made your happy little home in territory that belongs to _me_**** and I no longer wish to suffer your presence in lands that I have claimed decades ago by right of conquest. If you leave, and at this point I honestly have little hope you have enough wit to do so, (I remember how stubborn you are,) I will give you no more grief. Conversely, if you remain where you are, I will have no choice but to become much less pleasant in my little gifts.**

**So find a new apartment, Youko; do not make me get nasty. You do not want to see that again.**

**-D**

Kurama felt his blood run cold as he read the note over and over again, as if repetition would change it's meaning. _I'm in his territory, that explains a great deal,_ he thought. _Like why this kitsune is annoyed with me. So I'm a bother to him, a danger, but one that he'd like to persuade to leave rather than confront. Well, at least I'm a threat, not just a nuisance._

_But if he, whoever this 'D' is, has lost his patience with me, and is going to be 'nasty', I really need to know more about him. But,_ He glanced out the window. _It's too late right now to get started, and I'm tired. All the people I would want to talk to about information are ones I'd rather mot see without a full night's sleep behind me. So tomorrow I'll start, but not tonight. _

_It looks like I'm going to have to take off work for a few days._

And if whoever it was struck at him tonight, he could set up a few traps to make it very unpleasant for the intruder. Hopefully the sounds that would result if a trap was triggered would wake him. Normally he'd trust his own instincts to warn him if someone broke in, but if this demon's power was to put people to sleep, he felt the traps were doubly necessary.

Carefully twining a plant that would grow razor sharp thorns into the fabric of the curtains, so anyone who touched it would be severely lacerated, Kurama prepared plenty of other little surprises, drawing from his old experience of thieving for ideas.

As his hands were busy with his task, he set his mind to work going over all he could recall of the local territory. Demons of great power tended to get touchy about other powerful demons moving in on lands they controlled the actions of, so they tended to demand oaths of fealty from them or forced them out. The better parts of the city, if he was remembering correctly, were held by a clan of lynx demons; they kept the peace and punished troublemakers.

Another quarter of the city was held by a conglomerate group of demons, none in large amounts. This was where he'd once lived and the demon controlling the area had chosen to ignore his presence, as long as he caused no real trouble.

The last seventy-five percent of the other half was all held by one demon, some ambitious fellow who had slowly, over the years, been increasing his territory. Truly, Kurama realized, he didn't know enough about this other demon and what streets he held. It was quite possible that the kitsune angry at him over territory was the second most influential demon in New York.

_I certainly know how to pick them, don't I? Powerful, influential, and demonic, yes, that's how I like my enemies._

_Still, I was so busy thinking that maybe it was someone from work, someone involved in one of my cases perhaps, I never even considered the demon angle before._

The last defense, a plant that produced oil that burned anything that touched it, twined around the inside doorknob for an unwary intruder, was placed with care and only then did Kurama dare sleep.

**--------------------------------------------**

**Storeroom**

**Less Good Part Of Town**

**----------------------------------------------**

One of the eternal problems of a sniper was the transportation of their gear, as boarding a plane with a sniper rifle was frowned on in this day and age. And besides that, the stuff was too damn bulky to carry on a daily basis.

The way Hagiri had overcome this problem, and he had no doubt that he wasn't the first to think of this, was keep a catch of gear in the place he could easily get to them. It was somewhat expensive; he had to pay someone to stow the sealed crates somewhere safe and out of sight and keep more than one sets, but, in his opinion, the benefits outweighed the expense. He didn't want to get caught at a bad time with a rifle on him, and he didn't like the uncertainty of a newly bought gun.

This particular keeper required a substantial payment as he had 'forgotten' the exact place he'd put Hagiri's gear and needed the sight of money on his counter to remind him.

But the crates hadn't been tampered with, as far as Hagiri to tell, but he sifted through the boxes, checking the gear just in case. This was not a job he wanted to have faulty equipment on.

Tossing a bandolier of throwing knives back into the box, where it clinked against a bag full of dice —meant for the same purpose as the knives— he sighed, recalling the conversation he had with Menou only a few hours ago.

_She'd laced her fingers and leaned forward. "I'm going to give you credit for having a brain and skip the part where I tell you how serious this job is to me. Which will make this go much faster. We have to kill a senator."_

_"Which one?" Hagiri asked. "On second thought, never mind. I've not been in town for a while, I probably don't know him anyway. The senator is a him, right?"_

_"Yes. And truthfully, you really don't need to know his name, it's not important to the big picture. He's going to be making a speech, tomorrow, which is when we'll be taking him out. I'll do the shooting. That part I need you for is the bodyguards,"_

_"And they're a problem… because?"_

_Menou rolled her faded eyes. "Because they're demons. Which makes the entire situation more complicated. One fat senator I could snipe in my sleep, but with demon bodyguards I'd like to have a little backup."_

_He frowned. "I thought you worked alone."_

_"Usually, yes. But this is a special case and I'm not looking forward to the results if I screw this one up. Which is why you're here."_

_"Details?"_

_"Later, when you need them. I have the location and angles all worked out already. For now, get ready, tomorrow I'll be expecting you bright and early."_

_Hagiri tapped fingers on the table. "Supposing I don't want to help you? Supposing I've got enough on my plate already?"_

_She leaned forward, eyes glinting just a bit with a light that wasn't human. Something crackled around her, the antiviolence wards sensing the dangerous change in her mood. "Oh, I wouldn't suppose that if I were you. You owe me, and I'm calling that debt in. Believe me, you wouldn't want to leave me in the lurch. You would _not_ enjoy it. Now," Menou leaned back, the threat that had lurked just under the surface gone again. "In the spirit of getting this over with as smoothly as possible, I'll let you settle whatever you need to before tomorrow."_

Hagiri shook his head, bringing himself back to the present with a grimace. Menou's timing couldn't have been worse, what bad luck. Again.

He rummaged through the crates again, choosing what he would need for this particular job. That done, he resealed the crates and began debating the likelihood of Mitari and Amanuma letting him crash on their couch for the night.

With his curse mucking around, who knew?

**--------------------------------------------**

**Amanuma and Mitari's Apartment**

**----------------------------------------------**

At around the same time Hagiri was leaving the storeroom, Mitari and Amanuma were searching their apartment.

"Do we have any crayons?" asked Mitari, as he removed the textbooks from his bag so they could use it to carry the ingredients. "I thought I remember a pack lurking somewhere around the kitchen table."

After a few moments searching under the detritus of homework, textbooks, and takeout containers that were always on the table, Amanuma found an old pack of crayons. "Where did these things come from anyway? I honestly don't remember." He shrugged. "Oh well. Does it matter the color?"

Mitari, who had taken the list from Amanuma to reread it along the way back, glanced down at it. "Yeah, we need a white and a purple one. I don't know why those, but that's what it says."

"White for Dawn and purple for Hagiri. I guess it's for the color of their powers or something," he extracted the two they needed from the box.

"That would make sense," agreed Mitari. He'd emptied his bag and was now busy rummaging through the trashcan for the burnt out light bulb he remembered putting there only yesterday.

In total they were able to glean several ingredients from their apartment, the crayons, a dream catcher, the light bulb, even a blue pen, though it took a good amount of scribbling on Amanuma's part to use up all it's ink, and the nine links of rusted chain Mitari broke off a cheep necklace he'd gotten from a vending machine.

Surveying the loot that was spread out on a cleared space of table Amanuma said, "You know, maybe this'll be easier than we thought." He grinned.

"I don't know," Mitari was crossing off the ingredients on the list. "There's still a lot of stuff on here and most of it looks like it's going to be hard to find."

"You can be a real wet blanket sometimes, did you know that?" Amanuma said.

"Am not. I'm just pointing out we've still got more to find so there's point in getting all excited yet. Come on, let's put these in the bag."

"Why not just leave them here? That way we don't have to drag this stuff around?"

Fingering the chain Mitari made a face. "Just a feeling. What if something happens and we need all the ingredients fast? This way we'll have them all with us."

"Do you think something's going to happen?" asked Amanuma, seriously.

Mitari shrugged, dropping the chain into the bag. "I don't know. But Hagiri's going to get himself into trouble no matter what he does, so if he goes on that job with the curse still on, I have a bad feeling something really nasty is going to happen."

"Well, you're no fortune teller, but I agree with you, we should hurry and—"

A pounding on their door made Amanuma break off mid-sentence and both of them stare at the door.

"Who's that?" Mitari asked.

With a shrug, Amanuma went over to peer through the peephole. He drew back quickly. "It's some big bald guy. And he's got a sword."

"A sword? That's not good," Mitari said. No normal human carried around a sword. Unless they were a psychic, or not human at all.

The pounding on the door came again, more insistent.

"Leave by the fire escape?" Amanuma suggested.

"Good idea."

And they were heading for the window when the man on the other side of the door shouted: "Hey, Sniper, I know you're in there! Get the hell out here, the Boss wants me to chop you into little bits for what you did!"

Sniper was Hagiri's business name. The two psychics exchanged looks.

"That's not good." muttered Mitari.

"We should probably be somewhere else."

"Agreed."

But they never got a chance to take even one more step, because the bald man tried the door. They'd left it unlocked, expecting to be leaving soon, and the knob turned under the man's hand.

"Really, really not good." Amanuma said.

The man burst in, saw the two of them at once, and leveled his sword at Mitari. When Amanuma reached for his pocket and possible defense, the bald man reached into his winter coat and, withdrawing a gun, he pointed it between Amanuma's eyes. Amanuma froze.

"Where's Sniper?" the man demanded.

"He's not here." Mitari said, trying very hard not to move even an inch. It was a _very_ sharp looking sword.

"He was," the bald man said, he had earrings all up one ear, the little rings that glinted. "And if he isn't now, I wanna know were he went."

"We don't know," Amanuma blurted, "He was here, but now he's gone somewhere else." He glanced sideways at Mitari, wordless asking if he could do anything, anything with power, that is. But Mitari shook his head, he had his hand nowhere near his pocketknife, and there was no water around anyway.

"If that's the case," the bald man said. "I'll just wait here until he drops back in. Now you two sit down, right where you are and we'll just—"

And at that very moment, the gun and sword jerked out of the man's hands and a small object hit him over the back of the head hard enough to make his eyes roll up into the back of his head. The bald man fell and did not get up again.

"Anyone want to explain?" Hagiri was standing in the doorway, a die like the one that had stuck the man held ready between two knuckles. He looked at the sword and the gun on the floor. "It looks like it'd be an interesting story."

"Sure, but get inside first," said Amanuma. "He could have backup."

After reaching back to heft a bag in, Hagiri closed the door after him. Amanuma went over it and locked it, then put on the chain too. Just in case.

"That man was after you," Mitari told Hagiri, matter-of-factly. "Do you know him? He said his boss was mad at you about something. And more importantly, did you kill him?"

"I don't know. Probably not." Hagiri got a foot under the bald man and flipped him over with some effort, he was built like a tank. "Crap." He said, as soon as he saw the face. "And now I wish I had."

"What is it?" asked Amanuma. "He said his boss was angry at you, did he mean Ebony?"

"Ebony? No, Ebony's…" Hagiri shook his head. "It's not Ebony. Anyway, this guy doesn't work for demons in the first place. He's a mob flunky from out west, or at least, I think he is. It's been a while but I took out a kingpin's wife. He was not amused." At Amanuma's horrified look Hagiri added. "Hey, it was a job and it paid good. Besides, she was not a nice lady, to say the least."

"But why come after you now?" asked Mitari.

Hagiri shrugged. "I'm not an easy person to find, plus I've been out of country for a while. Still, don't worry about him," he toed the bald man on the floor. "I'll deal with him."

"Your not going to kill him, are you?"

"I'll tie him up for a while then put him on an express train to somewhere far away," Hagiri assured Amanuma. "Or something like that. I would just cut him loose, but he'd probably come after me again and that'd be a pain. Oh," he said, as if he'd just remembered. "I need somewhere to crash for the night, that's why I came originally. Your long standing couch offer still open?"

"Sure, as long as you don't end up burning the place down or anything else that'd make the landlord mad. We have to go out and deal with… something." Mitari hefted the bag, pointedly looking at Amanuma. "Isn't that right?"

"Oh, yeah. That. Yeah, we should get to that. There's some extra blankets and stuff in the cabinet under the sink, Hagiri, it gets really cold in here at night."

"Thanks," Hagiri said, though he was still staring down at the bald man with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I appreciate it."

"Anytime," said Amanuma, before they unlocked the door and made a hasty escape before either let something slip.

**--------------------------------------------**

**Kurama's Apartment**

**----------------------------------------------**

Something slipped through the window, swearing softly when a plant latched onto their ankle. But they managed to slide free of the vine before it got too firm a grip. Deftly the intruder took the curtain between two skillful fingers and carefully drew it out of their way, noting the plant woven into it as they did so. They had no doubt that they did not want to know what the plant would do to them if they were so careless to touch it.

Another one of the potted plants that sat one the deep windowsill wrapped a vine around the intruder's leg as they were easing themselves to the floor one foot at a time and they almost lost their balance.

A slash from claws and the hasty removal of the remains of the vine kept them from being caught in the trap or ending up in an undignified heap on the floor.

The intruder dusted himself off and looked around the room he found himself in. He was a kitsune, with short-cropped pale hair and golden eyes typical of the breed and an arrogant tilt to his head. His clothes were well tailored and dark, suitable to a night of breaking and entering.

And he found himself in a fairly average kitchen, mostly neat, with mail stacked on the table, a clean sink, and a great abundance of plants. Interesting, but not the room he wanted first.

He found a door and, after checking for and then disarming the traps on it, eased it open. Inside was a bedroom, where a sleeper stirred in their sleep, sensing danger.

In a moment the demon was at the bedside, reaching out a pale hand to put it on the younger kitsune's forehead.

"Go to sleep." He whispered to the redhead, who stirred again, fighting to wake because his instincts told him there was a threat close by. He shifted more sharply as he fought against the mental compulsion, but the other kitsune pushed harder, pouring more power into his voice, "Go to _sleep_, Youko."

His eyes flickered open, once, then the younger kitsune was gone, subsiding back into a sleep he would not wake from for some hours.

The elder kitsune rose, shaking his head at the stubbornness of the young but smiling in distinctly self-satisfied way at his victory, small though it might have been.

He returned to the kitchen, and stood for a moment, a shadowy figure in the darkness, the moonlight from the window catching his silvery hair and his white teeth as he smiled still. This was the first really offensive move in the game, the one that would make all that came before it simply pre-play.

And once he incurred the wrath of Youko, there was no going back. It would be all out war between them, and that was a risky thing.

But he could not stand by while another kitsune made his home on his territory. Especially in light of… certain events.

The kitsune shook his head and got to work.

**----------------------------------------------**

"**Turn back? No. There's no turning back now."**

**(Osamu~ Wild Adapter, vol 6)**

**----------------------------------------------**

**TBC**


	4. Using Brute Force

**Finder**

Dane Soar

I am so sorry for the wait, I didn't mean for it to be so excessive! But I had the worst cast of writer's block and then, after the creative juices got flowing again, my computer was infected with a nasty virus that took it out of commission.

However I can promise the next chapter very soon after this one! And to the person who wondered, Yusuke has an appearance in this chapter and Kuwabara shows up in the next. Hiei'll be around later on too.

Well, please review, I'd love to know what you think.

Chapter 4 **Using Brute Force**

**--------------------------------------------**

**New York**

**Street**

**--------------------------------------------**

Amanuma forced the toggle switch on his video game controller sideways, and the man followed the movement, cracking his head sharply against the wall. As the man slumped to the ground, Amanuma stowed his controller away with a shake of his head.

"At least we don't need Hagiri to pull us out of trouble these days." Mitari said, prodding the unconscious thug with his toe. "I mean, we can take care of ourselves… most of the time."

"Well, usually, we aren't attacked by gangsters on street corners," Amanuma replied. "Gangsters who want to know where Hagiri is to boot." He was glad he'd learned the puppeting technique, as it gave him a good offensive. At least, as long as he had the controller in hand, that was.

Deciding that it was better to just leave the man where he'd fallen, the two approached the shop that Dawn had recommended. It was wedged between a pawnshop and a dingy fabric store, with only a humble sign and a crystal ball and black velvet display in the window.

A bell chimed as they pushed open the door to the shop, and someone from the back called: "Be out in a moment!" in a slightly accented voice.

As they waited for the shopkeeper to come out, Mitari examined a colorful display of different sets of tarot cards, some of which glowed ever so slightly, and Amanuma poked cautiously at a stuffed owl, which was perched on a pile of books. The entire shop was a mix of cheap wanna-be junk and items of real power, stacked side-by-side, so that a regular human probably wouldn't be able to tell the one from the other.

The air in the place felt charged, humming, and Amanuma remarked that he was surprised the shop hadn't been blown sky high, with all the energy that was flying around.

There was a rattle from the beaded curtain as someone passed through it and came around the counter. "Oh, that happens a lot;" they said, having heard this last remark. "you can't put together so many powerful artifacts without a few booms every now and then," said the shopkeeper, with a friendly smile. He was dark skinned and had black hair that was cut short and spiked and his accent was something Mediterranean. "_Palimara_, welcome. Wait," the man glanced out the front window. "I didn't realize it was so late, it's dark already! Well, I guess I should say _palispera_ instead of _palimara_. There's no window in my backroom, I had no idea it was this late already. But what brings you fine gentlemen to my shop at this hour?"

There was just the faintest hint of power around the man, enough to make Amanuma frown. "You're a psychic, aren't you?"

"I am, but I've only got enough power that I can do this," the shopkeeper picked up a book that radiated a blue glow, "…without being fried to a crisp. My name's Erik and I'm the proprietor of this shop. What can I do for the two of you?"

"We need ingredients," Mitari explained, passing the list over. "Do you have any of this?"

Erik examined the list with a frown. "This reads like a spell to undo a hex. One of you has a hex on you?"

"It's for a friend," Amanuma said. "We were told that you might be able to sell us some of the stuff that's harder to find."

"Well…" the shopkeeper tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I know I can provide the rabbit fur, I usually have that in stock. And a piece of rose quartz too, that's always popular for spells. These two Makai plants I'm fresh out of, but I do have several nice unicorn hairs that I would be willing to part with at a good price. A piece of a rain cloud I'm not sure I have. Let me look in the back." Giving the list back to Mitari, he went back through the beaded curtain.

"How much is left to get?" Amanuma asked.

"Not a lot," Mitari said. "but two are these Makai plants, they won't be hard, we just have to ask Kurama if he can get us some."

Amanuma checked his watch. "But it's almost nine, won't he be asleep? Or at work?"

"Then we'll wake him up, or wait until he comes back to his apartment. But I guess we have to find the oak tree leaf on our own."

"I remember that one, it says 'the last leaf from an oak tree' right? It's a good thing it's fall or that'd be hard. But how will we know which leaf is the last?"

Shrugging Amanuma said, "I don't know, we could just look in a park until we find a oak tree with only one leaf left or something. It could take a while, but it's probably the only way to be sure."

"I do have some," Erik returned, carrying a bottle, in which something gray floated. "Just give me a moment and I'll have everything you need." He busily took something from a box, something from a bundle, and cut a square of something else. Finally he packed all three items up in a small box and punched something into his register. "That will be fifty dollars and seventy-three cents."

Both psychics exchanged surprised looks. They produced thin wallets and found that, between them, they had just enough. It looked like they would be eating carryout for while, but it was for a good cause.

As he was passing over the box to Mitari, who quickly stowed it in his bag, Erik lowered his voice. "And I thought you'd like to know, there's someone watching you from out on the street."

"What does he look like?" asked Amanuma, as he gave the wad of money to the shopkeeper.

"A thug," sniffed Erik. "There's a back door you can leave by, if you need it."

"That would be great, thanks." Amanuma said.

"I just don't want any trouble in my shop. Go through the curtain and take the second door on the left."

Not wanting to have to fight with _another_ person looking for Hagiri, especially in the middle of a shop full of highly powerful objects, Mitari and Amanuma took his directions gladly.

Beyond the beaded curtain was a hallway, and not a moment after they entered it the bell on the front door chimed.

"I'm sorry," Erik's voice drifted to them. "I'm closing early today. You'll have to come back another time."

The person who answered had a rasping deep voice. "I'm not here to buy. I'm looking for two guys, a blond one about, oh, yea high and a brown haired one about this tall."

"I haven't… haven't seen anyone like that."

"You're lying. I saw them walk in here not ten minutes ago. I need to have a little chat with these guys about the company they've been keeping."

"You, ah, must have made a mistake. Wait! Don't pick that up!"

"Well, see, you have to understand…" There was the sound of a something breaking, "…that lying to me is a real bad idea. Now what's this here?"

"Really, sir, you want to put that down."

"What, this?"

"Don't shake it!"

In the hall Amanuma raised his eyebrows at Mitari. Whatever had broken had sounded rather expensive and Erik's voice was panicked. "Think we should we go back?" Amanuma asked.

A bellow of pain from the main-room cut over whatever Mitari might have replied. The bellow was followed by a _wumph!_ noise and Erik's: "I _told_ you not to shake it, you dolt!"

Then there were some shrieks.

"Ack! Stop flailing around, ruffian, you'll catch everything else on fire!"

The word 'fire' brought Amanuma and Mitari scurrying back to the beaded curtain.

Peering through they saw a thrashing man, whose suit sleeve was on fire and Erik still shouting at him and pushing flammable looking things away.

"Should we help him?" Mitari asked Amanuma.

Amanuma watched as Erik grabbed up a fire extinguisher and brained the flailing man with it. When the man was on the floor, the shopkeeper calmly sprayed a burst of foam on the man's smoldering arm.

"No," he said. "I think he's got it under control. Let's find a park before he blames us for the mess."

"Is that likely?"

"I remind you we have been hanging around the world's most unlucky man."

"Good point."

And they made a hasty exit.

**--------------------------------------------**

**Amanuma and Mitari's Apartment**

**Dreaming**

**--------------------------------------------**

_The man, who was black from head to toe —eyes, skin, hair, clothes— stood, brushing dirt from his hands._

_Hagiri stood right behind him, gun in his hand, finger on trigger. But he'd waited until the dark man stood, waited until he saw what was coming to him._

_And the dark man smiled, which made him pause. Someone who had just found a person pointing a gun at them shouldn't be smiling. And normal people didn't have black teeth either._

_Then he figured it out. "You knew. You knew I'd track you down, after what you did to me. So you left the picture of this place in my head on purpose."_

_The dark man nodded, solemnly. "Yes. My Ivory is laid to rest," he glanced back at the mound of freshly turned jungle ground. "This was where we first met, I felt it appropriate. And now, this may be drawn to a close. You may do what you came to do. I wish to die with my Ivory."_

_And the sound of a gunshot echoed off the trees and sent birds winging up from their perches in panic._

_He was left standing there with a still warm gun in hand, looking down at the body of the demon that had…_

_Had…_

Hagiri woke, sweating cold sweat, heart going like he'd just run two miles. Still shaking off the last cobwebs of sleep he realized he'd pulled a knife, to fight what he wasn't sure, and put it away.

Passing a tired hand across his face, he sighed. Ebony might be dead, but what he had done to him, the possession, still came back sometimes, especially at night. He'd though it'd be better when he found Ebony and killed him, but nothing had changed.

And now, with bad luck on all sides and old enemies coming back, his situation was looking worse than ever.

The thought of old enemies made Hagiri glance downward at the bald man he'd tied up before daring to go to sleep. The man was glaring at him with a piggy eyes and real hatred. He remembered the man, Rake; if he remember the name right, was just a grunt. But if he was here that meant that others had been sent with him. It looked like he would have to watch out while he was in town.

With a groan, Hagiri stood and pulled the other man to his feet. He'd have to deal with him before anything else. It was the ones would come after Rake that he was really worried about.

He just hoped Amanuma and Mitari were alright.

**--------------------------------------------**

**Amanuma and Mitari**

**Park**

**--------------------------------------------**

Reaching for the leaf, Amanuma stretched out along the branch and winced, hearing it creak under his weight. But he didn't dare back off the branch, if he didn't get this leaf it would take him hours to find _another_ oak tree with only one leaf left to lose.

It had taken him and Mitari long enough to find an oak tree in the first place! Good thing there had been a passing jogger who could be quizzed about types of trees or they would have ended up wandering around forever.

He pushed himself a few more inches along the branch, fingers straining out for the leaf. Just as his hand closed over the oak leaf, there was a sharp _crack_ from the wood under him. The branched drooped downward, Amanuma sliding along it, but, at the last moment, he managed to use his free hand to grab onto lower branch. This stopped his fall, but left him dangling some feet above the ground with no other branch below him to grab onto. Too bad Mitari was off chasing the cat he'd seen for the cat whisker they needed, he could use the help.

There was nothing for it, he would have to just drop and hope he didn't break both ankles. He let go.

Amanuma landed hard enough to make his stumble, feeling the impact in his bones, but he had both the leaf and the use of his feet, so it was worth the momentary pain.

It was then that Mitari returned, with a triumphant expression, something small in hand, and three scratches across the back of his hand. "I got it!" he said, holding up the small thing he held. "One black cat's whisker. Did you get the leaf?"

"I almost died doing it, but yeah, I—" a massive yawn overtook part of the sentence. "Sorry. I did. But, man, I'm so tired."

Mitari checked his watch. "It's almost one, no wonder you're tired. So am I, I got used to waking up early for my internship, which," he winced. "I'm probably going to miss a day of tomorrow."

"You can say you were sick or something, I know that's what I'll be telling my professors." Amanuma yawned again, this time so wide it felt like his jaw was going to fall right off. "How many more ingredients do we have to get?"

Locating the list, Mitari consulted it. "Only three, and two of those are those plants from the Makai. The last one is something called 'despair's fruit' and I have no idea what that is."

"Well, the plants we can get from Kurama, so they'll be easy to get and while we're there we can ask him about the fruit. Really, we're almost done, and I'm exhausted, and I think we should call it a night."

"But Hagiri needs that curse off before he goes on that assassination and we still don't have everything!"

"Yeah, but if he's still at the apartment he's going to get suspicious if we're out all night."

Mitari snorted. "We're college students, remember? Party all night, sleep all day, you know? And you're assuming he stays the whole night at our place. Though…" he paused, then yawn hugely.

"Ha! See, you're tired too."

"But one all-nighter isn't going to kill us."

"Kurama's probably asleep too," Amanuma pointed out. "He probably still works the day shift. I bet he won't appreciate it if we woke him up."

"He's a _demon_, Amanuma. I think he can live without a few hours sleep."

"Hey, I'm not saying we should spend the whole night snoring away. Just a few hours…" he yawned for a third time. "So we don't feel like zombies."

Mitari sighed. "Fine. I get your point. Though we could just drink a lot of coffee."

"I don't think Kurama would take being woken by two wired college guys too well."

"That's true. Here," he held out his book bag. "Put the leaf in there and we'll head back."

As he took the bag, Amanuma lowered his voice. "There's also that guy who's been watching us from over by that bench."

"Yeah, I just noticed him. He looks like more of the guys after Hagiri. They're persistent. What do you think we should do?"

"We'll try to lose them on the subway or something. Come on."

**--------------------------------------------**

**Kurama's Apartment**

**--------------------------------------------**

It was quite possible that Kurama would have slept through the entire night and the day afterward, so heavy was his sleep, but the shrilling of his cell phone from the bedside table woke him.

Groggily he reached over and took it.

"Mmmmf?"  
"Kurama?"

"Yusuke?"

"Yeah, oh, sorry, did I wake you? I thought you'd be awake but I guess my math was off. Damn time difference."

Kurama shifted his grip on the phone as he slipped out bed, frowning as his mind began to lose some of the post-waking blurriness, "It's alright. It's about one-thirty over here, but I don't mind the wake up call." A small niggling something was trying to bring itself to his attention, but he couldn't quite figure out what.

"One of these days we're going to manage to call each other without one of us catching the other at a bad time. We always need to catch up, since we're on different continents and all, but we never seem to be able to get each other at a good time."

"It's really not a bad time, Yusuke, it's just…" the door to his bedroom was open a crack. He'd noticed the tiny difference, but hadn't completely registered it until just then. He always closed his bedroom door.

"Kurama? Is something wrong?"

"… No, nothing's wrong. I've just been having a strange night." He definitely remembered half-waking up last night, and if someone had been his apartment, that would have woken him. But if it had been the kitsune —and who else could have made his way through his defenses?— he must have used that sleeping power on him. Again.

His hand tightened on the phone. _He broke into my apartment and put me to sleep. How _dare_ he? _

"Kurama?" Yusuke sounded distinctly worried. "You're awfully quiet over there. Are you sure nothing's up?"

"No— yes," he changed his answer midway and sighed. "I'm sorry, Yusuke, something's come up, I need to go. I'll call you back later."

"Is it trouble?" asked Yusuke.

"No."

"Liar, liar. You sound like there's something up. Is this like the Karasu thing?"

"No." _Not yet,_ added Kurama, in the privacy of his mind. "But if I don't call you in at least three days, I would be grateful if you'd look into things."

"Right, so if you fall off the map I'll make sure you aren't being held hostage in the nearest abandoned warehouse by a crazy guy. I can do that. Just promise me one thing."

"What, Yusuke?"

"That I won't have to. Once was bad enough."

Kurama sighed again. "I get kidnapped once, _once_ and no one's letting me live it down. I'll call you later. I have to go." He disconnected and laid the phone aside. One hand went up to his hair, ready to go for a weapon as he listened for sounds that were out of place for his apartment.

Hearing nothing, he pushed his bedroom door the rest of the way open and went into the kitchen. The sight he saw stopped him in his tracks.

Every single plant in the room was _dead_, vines, potted plants, seedlings, everything withered black and irreversibly dead. Touching a finger to one of the dead roses, Kurama could feel the decay that had withered its roots and could tell they had been poisoned. He should have sensed the deaths of so many plants, especially ones that he had grown and nurtured himself and that were so close by, however, it appeared that the other kitsune had put him in too deep a sleep to even sense that.

It wasn't a comforting thought.

_He broke into my apartment, put me to sleep, killed my plants, and on top of all that,_ he picked up a bouquet of flowers from his kitchen counter, _he left me _more_ roses. I think I'm starting to get really annoyed._

Unlike the other bouquets however, these roses were starting to wilt, the blooms drooping on their stems. With just a touch of power he brought them back to perfect health.

Then he took the card off the stand and opened it.

**I give you these roses, in hopes that you too will be cut down in your prime and left to wither.**

He grimaced at the card. "At least we're being honest," he muttered. "Wouldn't want me to get the wrong impression after ransacking my apartment."

Then again, this was practically like the other kitsune had declared war, and Kurama was critically low on vital information if he wanted to wage a successful campaign. It was a good thing that Yusuke had woken him up, now he had the time to actually go and interrogate as many of his informants as it took to be able to find this kitsune. His best bet would be to start with—

A subtle scratching at the window brought Kurama back to full alert. In an instant he'd pulled a rose from the bouquet and summoned the rose whip. It wrapped around whatever had been lurking on his window ledge and Kurama yanked it inside.

His window was open; he never left it like that, and something had been out there watching him.

The luckless creature crashed onto his kitchen floor, with the rose whip still looped around it. Kurama saw that it was a raven, larger than the common variety. It was struggling and cawing and trying to get loose, but having no success.

Kurama reached down a grabbed it, feeling the demonic energy in it at once, confirming his guess. This was a raven demon of minimal power and it'd been spying on him from his window. And, quite often, weaker demons worked for more powerful ones.

He glared at the raven, which had gone very still when he'd picked it up. "You work for the one who has been doing all this," he said to the raven.

The bird just stared at him with beady eyes and gave no answer.

Patience long tested by the notes, the bouquets, the harassment, and broken by this recent home invasion, Kurama shook the raven until loose feathers started falling. "Who told you to spy on me?" he demanded. "Tell me or you _will_ regret it for the rest of your days."

There was a small cloud of smoke and he wasn't holding a raven anymore; instead he had a extremely thin man who had feathers instead of hair and an absolutely terrified expression on his face. "D-don't kill me!"

"I'll think about it. But only if you tell me exactly who you're working under." He glared at him with eyes that had more than a hint of gold showing. "And if you even think about lying to me, I'll make sure 'the rest of your days' is not very long at all. Tell me who killed my plants!"

"Dameon!" the raven demon throwing his arm in front of his face to shield it. "My master's name is Dameon! Please don't kill me."

That was a name Kurama knew instantly. And wished he didn't.

**----------------------------------------------**

""**How about on the Evil Villain Scale? Ten being Serpine, one being Scapegrace?"**

**"The Baron, unfortunately, turns it all the way up to eleven."**

**"Seriously? Because, you know, that's one more evil."**

**"It is indeed."**

**"So we're in trouble, then."**

**"Oh yes," Skulduggery said darkly."**

**(~Skulduggery Pleasant- Playing With Fire. Page 14-15)**

**----------------------------------------------**

**TBC**


	5. Uncovered Identity

**Finder**

After a wait I realize was _way_ too long I'm back! Sorry about the big gap in updates, I didn't want that to happen. But I'm really grateful to everyone who've kept reading with me and doubly so to those who reviewed. Thanks!

To the person who asked, Skulduggery Pleasant is a series of two books about a living skeleton, young girl, and a good deal of magic mayhem. They're quite funny and very quotable.

Chapter 5 **Uncovered Identity**

**----------------------------------------------**

**Kurama's Apartment**

**----------------------------------------------**

"Dameon!" the raven demon said. "My master's name is Dameon! Please don't kill me."

The other kitsune's name was Dameon.

Kurama actually let go of the raven, he was so surprised. The name was out of the mists of the past, from the Makai. He knew exactly who that was, and now that he had all of them, the pieces of the puzzle slid together so easily he could hardly believe he hadn't seen it before.

Dameon was the son of a high-class family of kitsunes and was a famous general in one of the most deadly of the Makai armies. All tales of his time in the army spoke of him as a callous and ruthless fighter, who liked women probably too much for his own good. He was especially well known for running off with the Commander's woman to become a thief —of course all kitsunes ran off to be thieves at some point or other— and, during his brief stint as a bandit, stole an impressive amount of treasure.

It had been in the middle of a heist that Kurama, at the time just beginning his thieving career, had met him. They'd been after that same priceless golden ring and Dameon had put him to sleep with insulting ease. Though in the end, Kurama had been able to throw off the compulsion and stole the ring from the pocket of his partner just as she and the older kitsune had been leaving, so it wasn't complete a loss for him.

After that they had crossed metaphorical swords several times over the course of the next decade, each having their own share of victories until, with no prior warning, Dameon had vanished from the business completely. Rumors had told of his death by the Commander whom he'd stolen the woman's affections from, though Kurama had always thought Dameon was too wily to die like that.

So supposing he hadn't, that meant that he must have moved to the human world, probably through a portal or some such and settled down under the radar.

If Kurama had moved into someone like Dameon's territory, no wonder he had been anxious to get him to leave. Though he was no longer Youko, there was no way that Dameon would know that he had given up most of his less civilized ways. On the other side, Kurama doubted human world would have softened Dameon in the slightest.

After all, look what he had done to his plants.

While he'd been lost in thought, the raven demon had been edging for the open window, hoping to get away. Seeing this, Kurama snagged him by the back of his jacket. The raven demon slipped out of the jacket, which had been too large for him anyway, but Kurama caught his arm and twisted it up behind him so the raven demon yelped.

"Don't kill me!" the raven begged, though as he said it his hand other was going for the slim rapier that was at his side.

With a _tut_ of annoyance, Kurama slapped the wrist of that hand sharply and, releasing that arm he'd pinned, pushed the raven into a kitchen chair where he huddled, cradling the arm and keening softly. With another annoyed sound Kurama closed the window. "I won't kill you, just stop that noise." He got instant silence. "Now, what's your name, raven?"

"… I am called Radames."

"Why did your master send you to spy on me, Radames?" Kurama asked. One would think he was calm from his voice, but there was still a hint of gold in his eyes, especially when he looked at his dead plants.

The raven hunched his shoulders as if he was trying to draw them up, like wings, around himself. "M-my Lord wished to know your reaction to his…"

"His what?"

"His play, um… sir." The raven demon's gaze skittered toward the dead plant life then away.

"Call me Kurama. Now, that was all he told you to do, just watch?"

Radames nodded.

"I see," Kurama said, calculating possibilities. This raven didn't seem like someone who would be able to lie without giving himself away in some way, probably he could take most of what he got from him at face value. "And why has your master not made any moves to be rid of me before now?"

"My Lord was not aware of your presence until recently... Kurama." Replied Radames, using the name reluctantly. As he said it, his eyes flickered away from him and to the floor.

_Ah, _there_. Not a lie, or he'd be more nervous, so a half-truth. And he used my name so it would sound as if he was beginning to trust me. Clever. Transparent, but still clever all the same._ "What other reason does Dameon have for wishing for my removal from his territory?"

"There are no other reasons… Kurama." Again the raven's flat black eyes avoided him.

"I know you're lying, Radames." He moved closer. "I don't have much patience left for lies, I'm warning you."

Even though he flinched back in his chair, the raven still shook his head. "No other reason! No other, I swear it, sir!"

_There, you called me sir again you forgot. You're nervous. And protesting too much. Interesting_. "Are you sure?" he pressed, drawing even closer.

"Positive, sir. My Lord said 'I will not allow that kit to make his home in my territory' and that is all there is to it!"

Another step forward and his shadow actually fell over the raven, who flinched back in his chair. He peered directly into the other demon's face, knowing the close proximity would make the raven uncomfortable. "The truth, Radames. Don't make me have to hurt you to get it."

At this distance it was easy to see Radames loose what little color remained under his dark skin. Though the raven tried to avoid it, their eyes met.

"Tell me the truth, Radames," Kurama pushed, putting power in his voice, power that the raven wouldn't be able to resist while he was this close and they had eye contact. He'd always been good at persuasion, kitsunes always were.

Slowly words forced themselves from between the raven's clenched teeth. "My… Lord's… ch— No!" He jerked back and brought something out and around. It was the rapier that he'd reached for before and it sliced a line across Kurama's cheek before Kurama darted back out of range.

_I didn't disarm him. Careless!_ He chided himself. _Anyone who works for Dameon would be devious and cunning in their own right._

But he was still faster than the raven and he had his whip out before Radames had gone more than two steps toward the window. The raven scooped up a flowerpot, tossed it at him so Kurama was forced to skip aside, and used the second that gained him to hurl himself through the window.

Through the _closed_ window.

Glass shattered and a raven shrieked in agony.

Kurama reached the window just in time to see the puff of smoke as Radames shifted form. The raven spread dark wings with a screech of pain and was off into the night before Kurama could cast anything after it.

Not that he had very much in the way of plant weaponry now, thanks to Dameon. With a sigh he regarded the broken window. _It's a good thing that it's so early or more people would have heard that. _

_I suppose I can say someone broke into my apartment. That sounds believable._

_Or it would, if this wasn't a window on the third story._

He turned away from the window; the wind was very chilly already. _Still, I'd like to know what is so motivating that it made Dameon wage war on me and one of his servants hurl themselves through a glass window rather than risk telling me._

_Still, Dameon killed my plants, stole their lives from me, and if _that_ is how he wishes to play, I will just have to steal something that he holds dear to his blackened heart from him._

"I need," he said to himself, "to talk to my informants."

**----------------------------------------------**

**Apartment**

**----------------------------------------------**

When the cell phone rang with the pop song of the month, two women grumbled in their sleep. One hand reached out, glowed briefly, and the phone flew into it.

"Chi," Ricky said, the phone to her ear. "I hope you have some idea how early it is."

"I do. I'm sorry to wake you."

"You better be."

"I am, truly." There was something, an undertone perhaps, that made Ricky sit up. "I was just calling to give you a bit of a warning."

"Is something wrong?" Ricky pushed her hair out of her face with one hand as her girlfriend murmured sleepy protestations about being woken.

"No, not as such. I guess 'warning' was a poor word choice. I'm going to be taking a few days off, I wanted to tell you ahead of time, so there'd be no misunderstandings."

"So I didn't call in the cavalry like when you went missing before?"

"Exactly like that." Kurama said.

"Is something wrong? Is something going on, like with those flowers you've been getting?"

For a moment Ricky could tell her partner was thinking about lying to her. Then he said: "Yes. But I've got it under control. I just need some free time to deal with things."

"Do you need some help? I know I'm not too," she lowered her voice, "powerful, but I can do something."

"No. I'll be alright. I just wanted you not to panic when I don't show up at the station."

"Well, now I won't. What are you going to be doing, Kurama?" she dropped the human nickname; this didn't seem like a time to be joking around.

"Gathering information. If you don't hear from me for a while, don't worry. I might have to go to the Makai."

"Be careful."

"I always am, Ricky."

After he disconnected, Ricky speed-dialed Yusuke's number, a left over from that last debacle.

"Ricky, it's been a while," he said when he picked up.

"I just got off the phone with Kurama. He sounded like there was something up. I wondered if you knew anything about it."

"Just that something's bothering him."

"You worried?"

"Well, if something's bothering Kurama it's usually not good. I'm worried."

Ricky raised an eyebrow. She might not have known Yusuke for very long but even she could tell he meant business. "You going to come?"

He explained and Ricky's other eyebrow rose. "In that case I'll be at the portal to meet. No, it's no problem. I don't have to work for hours. Sleep? Oh, I'll just pick up a cup of coffee on the way. What? Sure. I'll bring two. No problem."

----------------------------------------------

**Somewhere**

**Unpleasant Part of the City**

**----------------------------------------------**

The kitsune called Dameon could count the times he had had a servant fall on him from the sky while bleeding on one hand. Especially this servant. Usually Radames was a _little_ more competent.

Said servant now knelt on the carpeted floor, bleeding enough to make a sizeable stain, looking bedraggled and exhausted.

"You were detected, I take it?" the kitsune inquired.

The raven nodded wearily.

"What on earth happened to you? It looks like you tried to fly through a thorn bush." Something occurred to him and he leaned forward in his chair. "Actually, never mind about that. Did Youko catch you?"

"Yes, My Lord."

"Interrogate you?"

"Yes, My Lord."

"Nothing less from Youko. Of course. Now what did you tell him?" Dameon asked, in such a manner that suggested that the way Radames answered him would determine how much _more_ blood got on the carpet.

"N-not very much of importance, My Lord. Your name and intent to be rid of him."

"Did he ask why I have only so recently made the effort to get him out?"

Radames nodded. "Yes, My Lord. I told him that you were only lately aware of his new residence."

"Which is, in some ways, true. What about the other reason? Did you tell him?"

The bleeding raven flinched from the harsh tone in his master's voice.

"_Well_?"

"My Lord, no. I would never tell a demon such as Youko that which you do not wish him to know." Radames bowed his head, the picture of a contrite servant. "I apologize most profusely for being incompetent enough to be caught, My Lord."

Seeing the quiver of exhaustion in the raven's limbs and the notably growing stain of blood Dameon softened a fraction, putting a hand on the thin demon's head. "Radames, you have done quite well. Youko knowing exactly what I want is an excellent progression. Now go get yourself healed somewhere, you look horrible."

After the raven demon bowed and hastily retreated Dameon shook his head. Back in the Makai he would have instantly slain any servant that was stupid enough to be caught by the enemy side. Human world was truly making him soft.

Human world and… other things.

He stood for some time at the window, watching the city, wondering where Youko was and what he was plotting to do now, his fingers idly twisting the gold band on his left hand.

Yes, human world had changed him. Human world and… other things too.

----------------------------------------------

**Streets**

**Hagiri**

**----------------------------------------------**

In the end, he'd had to kill Rake. He wasn't going to originally, but when the man managed to free himself from his bonds and clocked him in the head, Hagiri had had no choice. Rake was the persistent type, he'd just keep coming back if he let him go free.

Wiping the blade of the knife clean on the man's shirt, he tucked it away with a grimace. He'd never taken any particular pleasure out of killing, but when it was necessary, he did what he had to.

And lately… well, being a sniper wasn't half of what it was cracked up to be. He was good at it, but he'd never liked it, it was only a job that he'd hoped would earn him enough to move on to something better.

Instead it had landed him on roofs in the bitter cold or the dead heat with only a rife for company. And sniper rifles didn't make good conversation.

Maybe it was time to leave the business. But with his luck Hagiri doubted that it the business would _let_ him leave.

With a groan he hefted the strap of the bag the held his gear higher on his shoulder and walked on. It was getting toward the time to meet Menou.

----------------------------------------------

**Around Town**

**Kurama**

**----------------------------------------------**

Kurama had mixed results over the next few hours.

The first informant refused to give any information on Dameon for fear of his safety.

The second informant doubled their price as soon as he heard Dameon's name, but had some very nice tidbits of information to tell.

The third informant fainted the moment he said Dameon to her.

The fourth informant charged an inordinate amount but told him some interesting things about the other kitsune.

The fifth informant was Twilight, a woman that was something similar to what Yusuke had once been, though in America some of the rules were different, and she started looking serious as soon Dameon was mentioned.

"Kurama," she said, gray eyes very grim. "if you did something to make that guy angry I'd advise apologizing real quick. Dameon's a pain in the ass to deal with and not someone I'd want to get on the bad side of at all. The last thing I want to do is to play referee to a full-out territorial battle between two kitsunes in the middle of New York." She glanced at his expression, which still had the ghost of some serious anger in it. "Too late. Never mind."

With a groan, she played with the ragged ends of her short blond hair with one hand. "In that case… well, you didn't hear this from me, but…"

For a few hours work Kurama had enough information to, with a little legwork, hopefully pull off something very, very devious. However, first he had to return to his apartment for some equipment.

There he found a surprise.

Kuwabara was sitting on his couch with a styrofoam cup of coffee in hand.

"What are you doing here?" Kurama demanded, throwing his coat over the back of a chair.

"Oh, that's nice. Come on, Kurama, you were always the one with the manners in the group," Kuwabara said, putting his coffee aside. "Urameshi sent me. He said he got worried after a weird conversation with you. But what with Kayko and the baby on the way he couldn't come over and see what was up, so he sent me."

"How did you get in?"

"Ricky." Kuwabara indicated the sleeping human on the other end of the couch that Kurama hadn't noticed at first. "She's got a key."

"It was for in case of emergencies," frowned Kurama. "I don't think this qualifies yet."

Kuwabara shrugged. "You never know. By the way, what happened to your plants, they all look dead. And how'd your window get broken?"

"A raven demon threw himself through the window and my plants—" Kurama shook his head. "I have something I have to do, I can't explain right now. You should go back to Japan, Kuwabara."

"I'm here, I might as well help out." Standing, Kuwabara took his coat from the couch arm.

"Fine," said Kurama in resignation, opening a drawer and rummaging through it. "I don't have time to talk you out of it, I don't want to miss this opening. There was just some things I needed here or I wouldn't have come back at all. Though I warn you, Kuwabara, this might not sit right with your moral code."

"We'll see. Should I wake Ricky? An extra pair of hands might help—" he reached for the detective's shoulder.

"No." Kurama held out a hand to stop Kuwabara. "I don't want her involved in this."

"She said she wants in on it," Kuwabara said, puzzled.

The kitsune shook his head. "Ricky is just a human, I don't want to get her involved with demons."

"I'm a human, Kurama," pointed out Kuwabara.

"That's different, you spent years fighting demons and you know how to use your power. Ricky is… she's…" Kurama sighed, taking a blanket from where it was hung over the back of the couch a threw it over his partner, it was cold with the window out. "She's just a human, she has no idea how much danger getting mixed up with demons could be. I've worked with her for years now and brought her coffee and sat with her on stakeouts and watched her dye her hair every color I can think of; after all that if anything happened to her because of me— because I failed to protect her from what I am…"

Kuwabara put a hand on his shoulder. "I get it. I'd feel the same way if anything happened to my big sis."

"Glad we understand each other. Now, hold this and come on, we're going to be doing a lot of work tonight if all goes well."

"What's this all about anyway?"

" …I'll explain on the way."

"Uh-oh, that's not a pleasant smile."

----------------------------------------------

**A Highly Secretive Bank Vault**

**----------------------------------------------**

Dameon scowled at the bank vault.

Only two hours ago there had been almost two-dozen very valuable stolen objects he'd recently liberated from their former owners stored here. Now it was vastly empty except for a small white card on the floor, which had on it the words:

_Turnabout is fair play, remember?_

_Youko Kurama_

Anger glinted in the golden eyes of the older kitsune. He crushed the card in one hand. "So this how you want to play, Youko? I'll just have to return this little move with another one of my own. One a little more… creative."

----------------------------------------------

"**To seek revenge may lead to hell,**

**but everyone does it— if seldom as well."**

**(The Ballad of Sweeny Todd~ Sweeny Todd)**

**----------------------------------------------**

**TBC**


	6. Unethical Play

**Finder**

I live! See, I didn't die between updates. I just had the strangest mix of real life busyness, computer trouble, and writers block. But I'm back now and hopefully things'll get a little more regular. Read, enjoy, review, thanks.

Chapter 6** Unethical Play**

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**Crowded Park**

**At Dawn**

**----------------------------------------------**

When Menou saw the figure approaching her with a bag over his shoulder, she smiled and rose from where she had been crouching at the pond's edge, brushing the remains of breadcrumbs from her hands. She thought, somewhere in the back of her mind, that someone who had to be in their twenties shouldn't appear so tired. She wondered if he knew how worn and exhausted he looked, with the coat that was slightly tattered at the hems, shadows under his purple eyes, and not enough meat on his bones.

Even as she watched Hagiri had to throw himself to one side to avoid a skateboarder who barreled past without a glance back. He shook his head and threaded his way through the joggers, dog walkers, bicyclists and everyone else who had a reason to be awake this early in the morning until he came level with her.

Up close, sharp demon eyesight caught just the hint of blood on the hand that moved his bag farther up on his shoulder. Menou raised an eyebrow. "Busy morning?"

"Something like that," he said. "How long do we have until this politician is going to make this speech of his?"

"A few hours," she replied, taking up her own bag of gear. "Just enough to get in place, set up, and be ready when the time comes. Come on, we've got twenty minutes on the subway until we get on location."

Hagiri sighed. Twenty minutes on a crowded subway with some highly illegal guns and Menou. It was going to be a very long trip. He just hoped he'd survive it… and this job.

Because he was beginning to have some bad feelings about this entire thing.

----------------------------------------------

**Kurama's Apartment**

**----------------------------------------------**

With a grimace, Kuwabara dropped back onto the couch, not waking Ricky, who slept like the dead on the other half. "Now, don't get me wrong," he said to Kurama, leaning his head against the back of the couch with a sigh. "I'm good at hard labor, but I don't think I ever want to do that again."

"Come now, it wasn't that bad," Kurama said. "and at least what treasures Dameon kept weren't in a warehouse. That would have taken longer than I would have liked to empty out."

It had taken forever to Kuwabara, but, then again, he had done a lot of waiting around while Kurama had disabled the security system and opened the bank vault. He'd been able to help with shifting the stolen loot into a van Kurama had somehow 'acquired' (Kuwabara didn't ask how) and with the unloading on the other end, but that was about it.

That the storage container they'd loaded the stolen goods, golden baubles, heavy china vases of blue and white, glittering jewelry, and mother of pearl inlayed mahogany tables into had to have been arranged a good deal ahead of time, Kuwabara also didn't comment on. It seemed perfectly reasonable to assume that Kurama would want to have several places to hide anything that needed hidden, whether it be the loot of an enemy or someone who needed to stay out of sight. This was just the way a demon's mind worked.

It was the sort of 'thinking ten steps ahead' planning that Kurama always did, the kind that he'd never really been able to think of.

"Is there anything we do now?" he asked the kitsune, who didn't look like the night's labors had tired him at all —in fact, there was a hint of a smug smile on his face.

"Nothing for the time being," Kurama said. "I'm going to cover that window and reset some of my traps, you should get some rest. It's been a busy night. The next move is up to Dameon." And he let the smug smile actually cross his face.

Kuwabara snorted something that sounded suspiciously like: "Poor unsuspecting bastard," and settled more comfortably into the couch. He was asleep soon after that.

Two hours passed and the window had been patched, the traps reset, and Kurama curled up in his armchair with a book that detailed the power struggle in New York between Dameon and his rival, the head of that clan of lynx demons. It made for dull reading, barring the occasional bloody skirmish in which both demons seemed to take wicked delight in beating each other to pulp, most of the fights were petty and repetitive.

He reached for the mug of coffee he'd balanced on the arm of the chair and made a face when he found it had gone cold. And just like that, he missed Hiei. With Hiei in the room, no matter how long he left a mug to sit, when he picked it up he would find the coffee still warm.

When had he last been able to visit? A month? Two? He couldn't remember exactly, but it seemed far too long right now. He missed having a solid partner to rely on; Kuwabara was wonderfully loyal, but there were some things about this current situation only another demon would understand.

He remembered what Kuwabara had said after he had explained the situation to him on the way to the bank.

_"Why don't you just move?"_

_"What do you mean?"_

_The psychic shrugged. "You're in his territory, so move out. Find another apartment that isn't in his territory."_

_And Kurama had stared at him blankly. "Kuwabara, you don't understand, I can't just leave. If I do that I've forfeited."_

_"So? This guy'll leave you alone. Isn't that the point?"_

"Yes, but… it's a pride thing. And I refuse to lose to Dameon again."

Case and point.

A knock at his door brought Kurama back from his memories on alert. It was loud and insistent and not what he thought a kitsune would sound like. And if it was Dameon, he didn't think he would have knocked.

Putting both book and coffee mug aside, Kurama rose as the fist _pounded_ on his door this time. Crossing to the door Kurama noted that while Kuwabara was awake and ready to be on his feet with a weapon in hand should there be trouble, the knocking had failed to make Ricky do more than stir in her sleep. More proof this world was not for her.

After peering through the peephole in the door, Kurama waved a Kuwabara to stand down and opened the door to reveal Amanuma and Mitari.

"Yes?" he asked, cautiously. "What is it?"

"Can we… um…" Amanuma glanced over his shoulder. "Can we come in?"

"Be my guest," he said. They came in and, after closing the door behind them, Kurama raised an eyebrow at the psychics.

"Sorry to bother you so early," Mitari said, then noticed Kuwabara on the couch and nodded a greeting to him. "But it's kind of important. Actually, we were going to come earlier but…" he made a face.

"We overslept a little," Amanuma filled in. "And then we had to run away from this group of guys with guns that wanted to 'talk'. We need three plants. They come from the Makai, apparently."

Mitari took out the list, which was more than a little crumpled by this point, and read: "Stillwort rockweed, feti mushroom, and despair's fruit."

"That's an odd combination," Kurama said. "What do you need them for?"

"What happened to your window? And your plants, too?" returned Amanuma, question for question, he had just noticed the piece of plywood over the window and the dead potted plants.

"And that's a nasty cut," Mitari said. Kurama had almost forgotten the cut on his face. "how'd you get that?"

Nothing the direction of Amanuma's gaze, Kurama sighed. "This doesn't look like it's going to be something quickly dealt with. Sit down, the both of you. Explain, in short form if you please, it is very early after all."

After only a moment's hesitation, Amanuma took the couch between Kuwabara and Ricky, and Mitari the armchair. A glance between them nominated Mitari to explain. "We're trying to help Hagiri. He's got this curse, it's for bad luck, and it's getting really bad. It'll kill him if we don't do something. Today he's going on a dangerous assassination, we're trying to break that curse now, because I don't think he's going survive the job he's going on otherwise."

"How will these plants help with that?" Kuwabara asked.

"We found this healer who can help us," Amanuma took up the story. "but not without these things we have to get for her." He nodded toward the backpack Mitari had at his feet. "So what happened here with you guys?"

"I'm having some disagreements with a neighbor," Kurama said smoothly. "Nothing to worry about." It would have been quite believable, except that Kuwabara snorted and ruined the delivery. Casting a silencing look at him, Kurama turned over the names of the plants in his mind. "Well, unfortunately, the plants that I keep here have become casualties of war. I'm familiar with both stillwort rockweed and the feti mushroom, but I have to say I've never heard of a plant called despair, especially one that has fruit."

"That was the one I wasn't sure about," Amanuma said. "But if _you've_ never heard of it, maybe it's something else. What about the first two plants? Are you sure you can't give us those?"

Kurama went over and touched the rim of a pot that held the withered remains of a plant. "This is my household specimen of stillwort rockweed. And I don't keep feti mushrooms on hand so, unfortunately I have none of either."

"Can you summon some?" asked Kuwabara.

But Kurama shook his head. "No. I can, but the effort would leave me exhausted of energy for a while and right now…" and Kuwabara knew he was thinking of the situation with the other kitsune, even if Amanuma and Mitari didn't. "Well, I can't afford to be without power at the moment."

"So you can't do anything," Amanuma said with a sigh.

"I didn't say that," Kurama smiled, just a little. "I just said I couldn't give you the ingredients you need through the normal manner. I can, however, take you to the Makai to get what you need directly."

"You can?" Mitari's mouth feel open, he quickly snapped it shut. "That would be great. When?"

"Right now." He picked up his coat, it would be warmer in the Makai, but not on the streets to the portal. "Kuwabara? Could you stay and look after my apartment?"

Kuwabara nodded. "Sure. I'll hold the fort." He glanced down the couch at where Ricky still slept, completely deaf to the world. "She'll be mad you left her out again."

"She'll live," Kurama replied, shortly. "Come on," he said to Amanuma and Mitari. "Let's go gather what you need. The sooner we leave, the sooner we return, and you two are on a deadline."

**----------------------------------------------**

**Dawn's Café**

**----------------------------------------------**

There were no customers in the café this early in the morning and Dawn was having a sudden attack of insomnia. So the contents of the side closet had been taken out and strewn across the floor by the man who worked the bar downstairs, who was in the process of searching. She wouldn't have asked him to, but she had been forbidden from any kind of heavy lifting until the baby was born.

She always needed some ingredients for spells and some medical supplies on hand for the all too frequent arrivals of bleeding people on her doorstep and, as a result, the closet was very full.

"I was sure there was a bottle of purified water in there somewhere," she said thoughtfully, frowning at the assembled junk. "Did you check that box?"

The bartender fished in the indicated cardboard box and came up with a vial of water, which he held up questioningly.

"No," Dawn said. "That's holy water. Completely different. Darn. I wonder where it could have gotten to?"

With an inordinate amount of care the bartender replaced the vial in the box.

Together they managed to scrounge up most of the ingredients for hex removal that she hadn't sent Amanuma and Mitari to gather. The bartender was just beginning to return the various boxes and containers to the closet when a black bird smacked into the plate glass of the door. There was a brief cloud of smoke and a moment later bloody Radames pushed open one of the double doors with what appeared to be the very last ounce of his strength.

He all but fell inside, having to clutch the handle of the door to keep upright. Very quickly for a woman that was pregnant, Dawn was on her feet and going for him. But when Radames lost his grip on the handle and fell it was the bartender, who was quicker on his feet than even Dawn, who caught him, easing him to the floor as gently as possible.

"Get me my kit," Dawn told him firmly, as she knelt by the bleeding raven. Moments later the bartender, sparking anxiously, handed her a roll of cloth. She took it, ignoring the tiny shock he inadvertently gave her from the lightning that flickered over his hands, and unrolled the cloth, taking a pair of tweezers from the line of metal instruments inside.

Delicately fishing a piece of glass from a gash on his forehead she asked, "Radames, what on earth did you do to get these wounds?"

"… fell from… a window… Lady Dawn…" the raven demon said, wearily. It had not been an easy flight, what with the imbedded glass.

"And you took most of it with you, from the looks of it," she said, with a shake of her head as she removed another shard. Before she sealed the wounds she had to get that glass out, if she healed the wounds now she'd been just seal it inside him. And while a demon could survive carrying around a few bullets inside, this much glass would kill him. "How on earth did you end up falling from a window?"

In lieu of answering her, he looked up, regarding the lethal looking shard of glass she'd just pulled from a wound with an inordinate amount of interest. That shard. And the next one. And the next one. And the next one.

As the silence stretched long Dawn said, with a sigh. "Let me guess, you can't tell me?"

The raven demon nodded, the feathers of his hair drawn close in his distress. "My Lord… would be very… displeased… with me." he said.

"I see. Which means whatever it is it's probably illegal and rather immoral."

She shook her head in disapproval, one hand going to lightly rest on her swollen stomach. "It usually is with Dameon." There was a snort of agreement from the bartender.

Radames avoid her eyes as Dawn continued to pick glass from his wounds. She had no idea just how very immoral the situation was and Radames was not about to risk the wrath of his master by telling her.

**----------------------------------------------**

**Makai**

**Borderlands**

**Field**

**Half an Hour Later**

**----------------------------------------------**

The weather in the Makai was actually quite mild this season, even though in the human world it was late fall and very chilly. But here, the wind was warm and the temperature comfortable. Had Kurama not had a dangerous kitsune trying to force him out of his apartment, he would have been quite content to stay for a while.

But, times were hard. And strange too. They had led him to be standing on the edge on a field, watching Amanuma and Mitari run around examining greenery, with his coat discarded over a nearby branch of a tree —though he had carefully checked the tree to make sure that it wasn't the sort that would eat it… and then try to eat him. This was the Makai, after all.

He knew this area was commonly a good field to find stillwort rockweed, despite the misleading 'rock' weed in it's name, and had given the description of the plant to the two psychics to look for, while he dipped back into the forest to gather a specimen of feti mushroom for them. That had only taken him seconds. Amanuma and Mitari were still searching for the leafy plant and he was too busy smiling at the dark flaming aura just on the edge of his senses to help. Besides, a little exercise was good for them.

When Kurama's cell phone rang, he fished it from his pocket and flipped it open. "Yes?" he said, a little surprised. He hadn't thought Horizon's phone service extended to another world. Next time he paid another inordinately high phone bill he'd have to remember it.

It was Kuwabara one the other end. "How's the weather?"

"Warm," Kurama said. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm not completely sure. Ricky woke up about ten minutes ago, she wasn't too happy about being left out of the action. There was a lot of shouting and then she left."

"You _let_ her leave?"

"Have you ever tried to _stop_ her?" Kuwabara sounded defensive.

"You're one of the most powerful psychics in Japan!"

"But I can't hit a woman!"

Kurama sighed. "Was she headed back to her house?"

"That's what she said. Do you want me to go after her?"

"No. Once Ricky makes up her mind about something it takes more effort than it's worth to change it. And besides, she's an adult, she can take care of herself in her own hometown."

"If you say so," Kuwabara's voice was unsure. "Did you find what you need over there?"

He glanced at the fresh picked feti mushroom lying at his feet. "We're working on it. We should be back in an hour or so. Call me if there's a problem."

"Sure. Tell the midget I said hi. Tell him he should come visit you more often, you're moping." Kuwabara said, slightly teasingly.

As he rolled his eyes Kuwabara hung up, chuckling. Sometimes his former teammate could be far too perceptive. "I don't see what's so funny about that." He muttered to the phone. And, while his eyes went back to Amanuma and Mitari's search in the field, his mind was on his wayward friend. She should be alright…

At least, that's what he told himself.

**----------------------------------------------**

**New York**

**Streets**

**----------------------------------------------**

Ricky was in a mood. And it was not, to say the least, a good mood. She hated when Chi did crap like this, keeping her out of things. It was damn insulting, like saying she wasn't good enough to keep up with Mr. Demon Extraordinaire and his cohorts.

With a mutter of annoyance she rubbed her chest. It had been hurting her lately; both Chi and her girlfriend had been on her case to go to a doctor about it, but who had time for that sort of thing? Probably just stress.

Stress from being left out of everything all the time!

Anyway, so what if she was human? So what if she wasn't some powerful psychic? That didn't mean she appreciated being left out of the loop. If something was happening to Kurama, she wanted to help, even if only in a small—

"Excuse me." The voice was deep and pleasant and Ricky automatically glanced up to see the speaker. Though they were on a crowded sidewalk, the man who spoke to her seemed to stand completely apart from the rest of the people. Maybe it was the silver hair, maybe it was the golden eyes, maybe it was the confident way he held himself, or maybe it was because he wasn't human.

Ricky had come a long way in this short time from being unable to tell that Karasu was a demon to being able to pick this one out from everyone else in the throng of people.

And she'd seen Kurama in his real form, though it had been a brief glimpse when a rapist that they had been after had turned out to be a demon and decided to put up a fight. And he'd had gold eyes and silver hair.

Just like the demon standing in front of her.

"I thought I recognized you," said the demon, flashing a very charming smile in her direction. "We have a …friend in common."

And Ricky was no idiot. She could put four and four together and come up with eight.

He looked like Kurama… so he was the same kind of demon. A kitsune.

Had a friend in common with her… so he knew Kurama too.

Kurama had recently been troubled… so it could be this demon that was troubling him?

Following that line of thought… she suddenly drew in a gasp of air. He was here to use her to get to Kurama!

"Is something wrong?" asked the kitsune, tilting his head just a fraction to the side.

She backpedaled. "Stay _away_ from me."

He didn't let her widen the distance between them, coming forward. "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Ricky, don't overreact."

Not bothering to ask how he knew her name, for all she knew he'd plucked it right from her brain, Ricky, one hand to her suddenly aching chest, said, "I don't know what your problem is with Kurama, but you're going to get nothing from me about him."

"Well, there's no problem there, as I don't want to _ask_ you about Youko. Still, I have to wonder. Since you know him so well, can you tell me, just what would happen if you were to vanish?"

"You _bastard_," snapped Ricky, though her face had gone white, sweat beading on her forehead. "Don't you dare—"

The kitsune lifted a hand, interrupting her. "You should go to—"

But before he could say 'sleep' Ricky gave a strangled croak, grabbed her left arm convulsively, and fell to her knees right there on the city sidewalk. Clutching the arm, she struggled for air that didn't seem to want to come.

Dameon regarded the shuddering human. "I didn't do it," he said, as if Youko was already there. "Wasn't me."

**----------------------------------------------**

"**You've been thrown off higher," Skulduggery said.**

**"Yes, but you were always there to catch me."**

**"So you've learned a valuable lesson: There will be times when I'm not there to catch you."**

**(~Skulduggery Pleasant- Playing With Fire. Page 21)**

**----------------------------------------------**

**TBC**


	7. Unforeseen Difficulties

**Finder**

This is a repost with some new editor's fixes, nothing drastic, just some tweaking.

Sorry for the hiatus, I had a really busy time and so did my editor. Please enjoy and tell me what you think. Or if you still remember what the hell is going on.

And in this chapter I took Genkai's advice to Kido, Kaito, and Yana with a grain of salt, supposing that once they became psychics, it would be hard never to use that power again.

Chapter 7 **Unforeseen Difficulties**

**----------------------------------------------**

**Makai**

**Borderlands**

**----------------------------------------------**

Hiei was quite aware that Kurama was nearby, and that he wasn't alone. A quick glance with the Jagan proved that he knew the others, Amanuma and Mitari, and they were industriously searching for something in the field.

Relieved of his border duty, he was currently at loose ends and would have nothing to occupy his time for the next few days. Usually he'd return to headquarters and either train or rest, but today curiosity was getting the better of him.

Turning southwest, Hiei took off through the forest. The trees whipped by him in a green blur. On instinct he reopened the Jagan to scan his immediate area for any threats, sending a flicker of power ahead of him to greet the kitsune.

At the edge of the field, across from were Kurama stood, Hiei paused. There was something lurking in the tree line with him. He narrowed his eyes and drew his sword…

Kurama had expected Hiei to arrive any moment. He'd caught the preceding flash of power he'd sent, but he didn't expect him to enter the clearing in an extended lunge, with someone flailing and falling under him. When they landed, Hiei was sitting on the lurker's chest, sword at the ready, hand at their throat.

Amanuma and Mitari, who had been in the process of showing Kurama several candidates for the plant they were looking, started at the dramatic appearance.

"Was he spying on us?" asked Kurama, pitching his voice so it carried across to him.

As he nodded, Hiei's sword didn't move an inch from the stranger's throat.

"I'm a little surprised that you didn't kill him outright," Kurama said, walking over to him.

"A human," Hiei explained, simply. And thus, more trouble than it was worth to kill him.

And he was right, the young man he had pinned to the long grass was human, and a human they knew, moreover. Blond hair, with dark eyes and a very annoyed expression. All were familiar.

"Kido? " Kurama asked, surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I'd tell you, but I'm being sat on." replied the young man in a growl.

"Is it really him?" Kurama inquired of Hiei, and when he nodded, said, "Then let him up."

Seeing that the intruder wasn't a danger, Hiei got off him. Amanuma and Mitari approached cautiously.

"I know you," Mitari said. "In the mess after Chapter Black, wasn't it? You were one of those psychics that worked with Yusuke."

"Yeah," said Kido, he climbed to his feet, brushing bits of grass from what looked like some kind of uniform jacket. "It's been a while. That's good," He, and Kaito, and Yanagiswa had long been working for Koenma, in fact, the coat he wore bore some resemblance to SDF's. His non-contact with them meant they had all stayed out of trouble.

"What brings you here, of all places?" asked Amanuma, the Makai was not a place for humans, at least not a place for humans who intended living very long.

"Business," said Kido. His foot quickly snapped down and Hiei, who had reached for his sword again at the word, found himself frozen in place by Kido's foot planted on his shadow. "Not like that. I was looking for that Sniper guy, I can't contact him any way but though you two." He nodded at Amanuma and Mitari. "I'm not here on Koenma's orders."

When Hiei didn't set him on fire after that statement, Kido eased his foot off the demon's shadow.

"You saw us as we came through the portal?" Kurama asked, and the psychic nodded. So, Kurama guessed, he must have been on his way somewhere else before recognizing them and deciding to follow. Following at a distance, that was, or he was sure he would have sensed him before this.

Seeming satisfied with this brief explanation and able to make the several leaps of reasoning it took Amanuma asked, "What do you want us to tell Hagiri?"

"That there's someone looking for him," Kido said. "It's just a rumor, but I heard it from a reliable source in the US. Some dark man, he said. And whoever it is, he isn't very happy. I thought Sniper deserved a heads up."

"A dark man?" asked Amanuma, surprised. He looked at Mitari and knew they were both thinking the same thing. Ebony.  
"I thought Hagiri killed him," Mitari muttered.

"He never did say he did, we just assumed," replied Amanuma.

While they asked Kido for more details about what he'd heard (which he didn't really have) Hiei stepped closer to Kurama. "Why did you come here with two humans?"

"They're looking for a plant that's only grown here."

Hiei frowned. "Why didn't you summon it?" Suddenly he peered at the kitsune intently. "You're tired." He said it not like a question, but a statement, to answer the former question. "Trouble?"

There was no sense in trying to fool Hiei, who knew him far too well. He sighed, "Yes. Nothing I can't deal with, though."

"What is it?" Hiei asked anyway, as Kurama had a nasty habit of downplaying danger to himself.

"A bit of a territorial dispute, my new apartment is in the lands of someone who doesn't appreciate my presence." Kurama was careful to keep his tone light as he said this, not to let his real worry leak through.

"It looks like it's getting personal," commented Hiei and Kurama didn't know what had prompted that comment until Hiei drew a finger across his own cheek.

When, confused, Kurama copied the movement, he felt the slash that Radames had drawn across his cheek with his rapier. He had healed it enough to close it, but didn't waste the energy it would take to heal it completely. "Oh, that. Nothing as personal as it looks. Just a little interrogation gone wrong. It wasn't very serious. "

"They marked you."

"I got careless. I won't again."

"How soon are you returning to the human world?" Hiei asked bluntly. The implied, "I'm going with you," was not subtle at all.

Kurama sighed. He'd been afraid of this. "Soon."

"Good." Hiei said. "I have nothing else to do for a few days."

"No," Kurama placed a hand on Hiei's chest to stop him. "I can handle the situation. This enemy is smart, and he's going to go after not just me, but everyone I care for. The last thing I need is another target." And another person to look after.

The look Hiei gave him was clearly supposed to remind him that the other was a full-grown demon and quite capable of taking care of himself.

"I know, but I'll sleep a lot safer knowing you at least are out of the line of fire. Besides Yusuke being safe with Kayko and their son in Japan, you'd be one of the few people I can know are out of reach."

"The Idiot?"

"Visiting me."

"I'll wait." Hiei said. "But I'm still coming."

Which was as best as Kurama could ask for. When he wanted to be, Hiei could be annoyingly protective. "The matter should be settled by then."

"Kurama!" While the two demons had been talking, one of the others had gone over to retrieve the mushroom specimen and Mitari's backpack from the other side of the field. "We need to get all this—" Amanuma waved the stillwort rockweed before adding it into the bag with the feti mushroom. "—back to Dawn as soon as we can. Can we head back?"

"If you need to," Kurama said, then to Hiei. "I'll suppose I'll see you soon then."

He nodded briefly, then blurred out of sight, into the tree line and away.

Kido still stood nearby, his hands buried in his pockets. "Mind if I tag along to the portals?"

Knowing what was likely to happen to a human wandering alone in the Makai, and realizing the risk the psychic had taken to get to them, Kurama said, "Of course."

**----------------------------------------------**

**An Hour Later**

**Portal**

**----------------------------------------------**

It wasn't all that far to the portals back to human world, and with Kurama along no demon thought it worth the trouble to attack the three humans. After they reached the portals and their queues, Kido gave a wave and walked away to join one of the lines heading the Eastern hemisphere portal. The portals were usually a neutral place, which was why some psychics actually dared use them, but sometimes there was trouble.

Not today though, lines were short and growing shorter so that no one got too impatient.

Though they could have forced their way to the front of the line simply by dint of having a very strong demon with them, the line to their portal was short enough that it wasn't necessary to worry about the wasted minutes.

They told their coordinates to the portal operator and, once it'd been set into the portal, passed through. It deposited them on the street near Kurama's apartment with no further mishap.

Where Kurama found another bouquet of wilted roses on his doorstep.

"What's with the flowers?" Amanuma asked.

"I'll tell you later," said Kurama, snatching the roses up impatiently. A white card fluttered to the floor and Mitari retrieved it before handing it to him. He glanced at it first.

"Weird card," he commented.

Kurama glanced at it.

**Missing something?**

**—D**

The tone was decidedly smug. He stuffed it into his pocket and unlocked his door.

"Got what you needed?" Kuwabara asked, rising from the couch.

Mitari held up his book bag triumphantly. "Yup."

Kurama set down the newest bouquet on his counter, and, as he did so, noticed something. A dark lock of hair was wedged into the plastic cardholder that the card had slipped from. Dark hair that had a highlight in it…

"By the way, Kuwabara… have you heard anything from Ricky?" he asked, not turning because he didn't trust his expression to be as neutral as it should be.

"No, why?"

He did not take the hair from the holder, but he did pick up the bouquet, willing the wilting flowers back to fresh life. "Oh, no reason."

Kuwabara wasn't as good at reading Kurama as Hiei was, but he could see by the set of Kurama's shoulders that something was wrong. He watched Kurama draw out his cell phone.

The kitsune punched a number and waited for a pickup. Kuwabara knew the call had connected when Kurama went very, very still. In a bad way.

Having dialed Ricky's number, Kurama felt cold when the voice that answered was not that of his partner.

"It's about time," said a voice on the other end. A smug, male voice.

"Dameon," He said, pitching his voice low so none of the humans could overhear him. "Why do you have Ricky Halash's cell phone?"

"Now that _is_ an interesting story," Said the other kitsune.

"_Where is Ricky?"_ Kurama demanded.

"About that… I believe I might have broken your human, Youko."

Kuwabara, who was watching as Kurama turned, saw the flash of gold in the kitsune's eyes that boded very badly for whoever put it there. His fingers became so tight around the bouquet it made the plastic crackle alarmingly.

"How do you mean 'broke'?" he asked, and, hearing the danger in his tone, Mitari and Amanuma broke off their conversation about ingredients to stare at him.

"I'm afraid I might have given her a bit of a shock," said Dameon with mock sympathy. "My deepest apologies Kurama, I did my homework and discovered how strangely _fond_ of humans you've become since you left the Makai."

He might have said more, but by that point, Kurama wasn't listening anymore. In the next four seconds, Kurama had snapped the phone shut, tossed the bouquet carelessly on the counter, and was gone so fast that he left the three humans staring in surprise at the spot where he had been standing moments ago.

"I thought only Hiei could move that fast," remarked Amanuma, finally.

"Well, only Hiei can," said Kuwabara. "But Kurama can come close. Something really bad must have happened."

"What do you think happened?" Mitari asked.

"No idea," Kuwabara said, he picked up the discarded bouquet and noticed the lock of hair wedged in the cardholder almost at once. "But I have a few guesses."

"You gonna go after him?"

He shook his head. "Can't catch up. But I'll track him down, I just hope he doesn't do something dumb before I can find him." Kuwabara started for the door but was brought up short when someone knocked on it.

Mitari opened it to reveal a disheveled butterfly demon both he and Amanuma recognized.

Menou smiled charmingly. "I wouldn't bother you, but you weren't at home and… ah," she brushed almost nervously at her jeans and they all noticed what had to be bloodstains on the fabric. "I do remember you knew the kitsune that lives here and ah…well…" Menou sighed. "My job sort of… fell through. …I think I broke the human." She reached back and dragged a very bloody Hagiri into Kurama's apartment by his shoulders.

The psychic was unconscious, with several dark circles of blood spreading over his shirt and one on his thigh. He was also the color of a sheet and not breathing all too deeply.

Amanuma threw his hands up in the air. "So much for getting the hex off _before_ he gets himself shot again! We don't have all the ingredients to take off the hex, what are we supposed to do?!"

**----------------------------------------------**

**New York Police Station**

**Twenty Minutes Later**

**----------------------------------------------**

Mengii Montes, detective and psychic, jumped about a foot when both Kurama's hands landed on her desk with enough force to rattle the pens in her mug.

"You don't look so good," she said, taking in the cut on his cheek and the way he seemed to be very much on the edge of something like anger.

"I need to know where the demon who gave me this is," he slapped a white card down on her desk and ignored her remark. "Right now."

"Okay," she picked up the card, "anything I need to know?"

"He has Ricky. And I need to find him right now." _And when I do, _Kurama thought,_ I'm going to kill Dameon horribly. And _damn_ the consequences._

**----------------------------------------------**

**Somewhere…**

**----------------------------------------------**

In that somewhere, Ebony stirred, then settled back into the mind he had meshed himself with… it wasn't time yet.

But it would be soon.

**----------------------------------------------**

"**You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." **

**(Batman~ The Dark Knight)**

**----------------------------------------------**

**TBC**


	8. Utter Bloody Chaos

**Finder**

Better late then never. Please enjoy and review.

Chapter 8 **Utter Bloody Chaos**

**---------------------------------------------**

**New York Police Station**

**----------------------------------------------**

Mengii knuckled her forehead, wishing her headache would go away. Ever since Kurama had her track that demon her head had been doing its best in an attempt to split in two.

Whenever Kurama got _that _look in his eye, though, it meant that something was going on. Something really nasty and possible messy.

Her headache flared sharply and she winced. Maybe… maybe it would be best to do some damage control and follow Kurama. To make sure that things didn't get too out of hand.

Or try.

**----------------------------------------------**

**Kurama's Apartment**

**----------------------------------------------**

"What happened?" Amanuma demanded as he pressed a spare shirt to one of the bleeding holes in Hagiri's chest.

Menou shrugged. "Honestly? I have no idea. Everything went to hell, it went wrong from the start. We screwed up. He got shot. I had to haul him off. It's been a _long_ day." She ran a hand through her hair, which was straggling with sweat. "I've never seen mission go down the toilet so fast. We barely had time to try to set up before those bodyguards spotted us and…" the butterfly demon hefted the strap of her gun higher on her shoulder as she made a face. "And speaking of toilets and other unsavory things, I'm not sure we weren't followed on top of everything so I hate to drop the wounded and run but—"

"You're _leaving_? You got him into this mess!" Amanuma glared at her.

"You can't just go!" added Mitari.

She shook her head. "Grow up, children. We're all adults here. Which, apparently, makes all of us free to make our own mistakes." Turning, Menou made her way to the door, and after she opened it she glanced back over her shoulder. "For what it's worth, I do rather hope he doesn't die."

In the next moment, the door was open and she was gone.  
"It's not worth much." Amanuma muttered, uncharitably.

Mitari looked down at Hagiri, who had gone a gray color not commonly seen in live people. Already Amanuma's hands, holding the shirt over a bullet hole, were soaked with blood, and Mitari had seen enough people injured to know that this was bad. Very, very bad.

"He's losing too much blood," Kuwabara said. "We need to get him to a hospital before he loses more than they can replace."

"We need to get that damn curse off!" Amanuma snapped, sitting back on his heels and wiping his forehead with the back of his hand.

"I'll take him to the hospital, then," said Kuwabara. "Call your healer and meet me there. Where's the nearest hospital?"

"St. Maria's," Mitari said. "Seven blocks to the right and two to the left from our doorstep. I fractured my arm last summer," he explained, when Kuwabara gave him a questioning look. "I was home alone and had to walk to St. Maria's. I'm really, really sure of those directions."

Carefully Kuwabara hauled the unconscious psychic to his feet, draping an arm over his shoulder so he could keep him upright. "I need to take a cab or something, I'm no Hiei. I can't get there in time otherwise."

"Right, you'll need money." Amanuma threw down the bloody shirt and went to the fridge. He took out a butter container, long empty of butter, and withdrew the emergency fund that he and Mitari usually saved for desperate times. If these didn't qualify, he didn't know what did. "Here," he thrust the wad of bills at Kuwabara.

He pocketed them and hauled Hagiri out.

"You call Dawn," Mitari held the piece of paper that had her number on it out to Amanuma. "I want to check that list and make sure we're not missing any ingredients."

"We are, remember? That despair's fruit thing."

"I mean besides that." Amanuma said.

**---------------------------------------------**

**Dawn's Café**

**----------------------------------------------**

Dawn was checking on the sleeping Radames. She had healed the wounds he had come to her with, but he was still exhausted and she wasn't about to let him leave in that condition. Luckily they had rooms in the back for just that purpose, and she'd insisted Radames rest before going back to his master.

As she leaned against the doorframe she heard the phone ringing in the café, and with a sigh, went to get it.

"Hello?" she said.

"Dawn, this is Amanuma," His tone was something edging on frantic.

"What's the matter?" she asked, instantly.

"Hagiri got hurt. Really badly. And he's at the hospital, but we need to get the curse off because I don't think he's going to live through this otherwise! Not with the hex screwing things up. We've got most of the ingredients."

"Which hospital?"

"W-what?" Amanuma sounded like he wasn't edging on frantic anymore, he was there.  
"Amanuma," she spoke as steadily as she could. "I need to know that hospital your friend is at. Otherwise I can't help any of you."

"Oh. Oh! Sorry, I— Kuwabara, a friend, he's taking him to St. Maria's."

"Good. I've worked with the staff at St. Maria before, they know me. I'll get what I need from here and meet you there."

"Hurry," Amanuma said, before hanging up.  
Dawn remained staring at the phone for one long moment. The holder of a bad luck curse being seriously injured was the worst thing that could have happened. She put down the phone.  
Time to go break a imbedded hex on a dying man. With her erratic energy patterns and the fine-tune control that curse breaking required.

Just another day in the life of a healer.

She put a hand to her stomach, "You have a strange mother, baby."

Then she went to wake Radames.

**---------------------------------------------**

**St. Maria's Hospital**

**Emergency Waiting Area**

**----------------------------------------------**

Hospital waiting areas were always too brightly lit, so they made everything seem stark and flat and without as much color as it normally would have.

Kuwabara himself seemed washed out as he rose from his chair to greet Amanuma and Mitari, his eyes tired. "They took him as soon as I walked in with him all bloody. The doctors are prepping him for surgery."

"Is it…?" Amanuma began.

"Yeah, bad." He said. "Two bullets in the liver, one nicked his stomach, and the one in his leg hit something important, or, at least, that's what they told me."

"But if they operate now will he be alright?" asked Mitari, with concern.

"The guy I talked to made it sound like it was a risky surgery to get the bullets out of his gut, 'cause of where one of them is. With Hagiri's luck…" Kuwabara trailed off and shrugged. "A lot of things could go wrong."

"Well, we've got the ingredients here," he pointed at the book bag on Mitari's shoulder. "and Dawn should be here soon so hopefully nothing will go wrong."

"But we _don't_ have all the ingredients." Mitari said.

"You don't?" Kuwabara asked. "What are you missing?"

"Something called despair's fruit," he replied, "Kurama said he'd never heard of it so I'm not sure it's even a fruit."

"Hopefully it's not important or Dawn can make up for it," said Amanuma with a sigh.

"Your healer's this Dawn, right?" asked Kuwabara. "She'll be here soon?"

"Yeah, she said she'd call when she got—" Amanuma had taken his cell out of his pocket as he said this, and, as if on cue, it rang. Immediately he took the call.

When he hung up, Amanuma almost smiled. "Dawn's almost here, she'll meet us in the parking garage. She says she has some sort of arrangement with this place, a couple of the doctors are psychics and they know what she can do. So we're all clear for her to break the curse before they try to take the bullets out, if they try it with the curse still on I don't think he'll survive."

"Can they afford to hold off on the surgery?" asked Mitari. "Hagiri was losing a lot of blood when I last saw him."

"They can't," Kuwabara said, flatly. "Not for long, anyway. That's what the doctor who talked to me said. You two'd better go get your healer, you're running out of time."

"Come on," Amanuma said to Mitari. "We should get down to the parking garage."

Mitari took the backpack from his shoulder and handed it to Amanuma. "You get Dawn, I want to see Hagiri. Do you think that's possible?" he asked Kuwabara who shrugged.

"Dunno, but you can check. Talk to the doctors." He said. "I'd rather go meet this healer and make sure things go well there. I've been sitting in here for too long, I need to stretch my legs."

"Tell Dawn about the missing ingredient," Mitari reminded Amanuma. "And tell her to hurry."

"We'll be back soon." Amanuma said, and, after clasping Mitari briefly on the arm, he and Kuwabara left for the parking garage.

**---------------------------------------------**

**Streets**

**Traveling**

**----------------------------------------------**

Any person who was unfortunate enough to look Kurama in the face as he stalked down the street found themselves, for no reason that they could rationalize, turning and walking very quickly in the opposite direction. He knew he was slipping a little on the human act, but at the moment, with his partner in the hands of a cold-blooded kitsune that he knew was capable of some very unpleasant things, he didn't find himself caring all that much.

When the time came and he found Dameon, he'd need all the demon cunning he could summon up. And, of course, a bit of trickery too.

A lot of trickery, if it came to it.

Usually when Kurama walked into a fight he knew he had the advantage of superior age, experience, power, and cunning. But here he was faced with a older, stronger, smarter demon who had already proved he was more than a match for him.

Here he was walking into a fight with every disadvantage.

This was different than any other battle.

And, with Ricky captured and quite possibly injured, it meant he had to match wits with Dameon and win. At any cost.

**---------------------------------------------**

**Hospital Room**

**----------------------------------------------**

Mitari tried to close the door to Hagiri's room quietly, but it clicked shut anyway and he winced at the noise. The room was quiet enough that the click seemed disproportionately loud.

He edged over to the bed, not sure if he wanted to see his friend like this but knowing that if he didn't see him now and Hagiri died later on the operating table he'd never forgive himself for being too cowardly to make some sort of an effort at goodbye.

But being dressed in hospital gowns made people instantly look about five times frailer and Hagiri really didn't need the help of the gown to look crappy. He only had a few shades between him and the sheets and there was the sheen of sweat on his face.

Tubes hooked him up to an IV, bags of blood, and a few miscellaneous machines and it appeared as though each was necessary to keep him from crashing and burning.

And then, to Mitari's surprise Hagiri cracked open one eye. "… hey," he rasped. "n't see you… m'here…"

"Hey, to you too," he edged closer, as requested.

Hagiri peered at him, trying to sit up and wincing. "Your… expression… I must… look bad…"

"Yeah," Mitari couldn't help a nervous laugh. "Sorry, but, you do. How do you feel? Wait," he shook his head. "on second thought, don't answer that. Stupid question. Probably you feel horrible."

"Na… lots of… painkillers." He said, but his voice was rough with pain. "'S funny… all the stuff 've… lived through… holes 'n my stomach… smashed by a… motorcycle… 'nd somehow… 've got the feelin'… that this's the end… coupla bullets… all it'll take… ta kill me…"

"The end? That's… that's kinda fatalistic, you shouldn't talk like that."

"With the curse…screwin' everythin' up… I don't… think it's all… gonna be endin'… good."

"Actually, that'd be where you're wrong. See, remember when we visited that café?" It was like the sentence momentum, once Mitari started talking he found the rest of the words poured out of his mouth, faster and faster. "Because Amanuma and I talked with Dawn, that woman that healed your arm, while you were busy lining up your job with that scary looking demon and we think we might have found a way to break the curse. Because if we leave it on you, you're going to die! And that was bad, so we, Amanuma and I, went out and gathered all these ingredients so Dawn could take off the hex on you. Isn't that great?"

Hagiri blinked at him with eyes that were a little fuzzy with painkiller induced fog. "… repeat that… slower?" he asked finally.

**---------------------------------------------**

**Parking Garage**

**----------------------------------------------**

Subterranean parking garages were never the most comforting of places, but this one was giving Amanuma a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. It was something to do with the dim light and echoing sounds and lack of other people.

The fact that it was also very, very cold wasn't helping the spookiness level at all.

Kuwabara stuffed his hands in his pockets and shuffled in place for warmth Amanuma kept expecting someone to appear out of the shadows and paste them both while they just stood there and waited for Dawn to appear. And he also expected Dawn to appear just like that, poof, appear and be standing there.

What happened was much more mundane.

A black Lincoln drove unsteadily around the corner, through the untinted windshield Amanuma could see the demon he remembered had been called Radames clutching the wheel with an expression of fierce concentration on his face as if he was no master of driving. He apparently stomped too hard on the brake because the car jerked to a halt in front of the two of them with a slight squeal.

The door on the opposite side to them opened and a man came around the car to their side. Seeing him made Kuwabara's eyebrows rise and he took a few steps back, putting out an arm to guide Amanuma ever so slightly behind him.

He didn't protest the offered protection because something about the man made his spine tingle. It was like his appearance, white-blond hair and fine features, and blue eyes, was not quite what it should be. Like there was something just underneath that, and whatever it was, it wasn't pleasant.

And he was a demon. That had a lot to do with the spine tingling creepiness too.

The demon spared them a glance before going to the door and opening it. He offered his hand and Dawn took it before sliding out of the car, one hand to her stomach.

"You know," she said to the demon, "that being pregnant has not taken away my ability to open doors by myself or travel completely without incident without an escort."

"Of course, dear," The demon said mildly.

Shaking her head at him, she turned to Amanuma. "I came as quickly as I could oh, wait… who is this?" she frowned at Kuwabara.

"This is Kuwabara," Amanuma explained quickly. "He's an old friend that's in town."

"I'm Dawn." she gave him a smile. "And this," she gestured to the demon, "is my… husband— I wish you would take that illusion off, Dameon, they're psychics you're not fooling either of them by looking human."

The demon rolled his eyes in a massively frustrated gesture and clicked his fingers. His hair was no longer blond but purely white and his eyes weren't blue but a gold that was so bright they seemed to glow

Something about the way he held himself, that self-satisfied tilt of the head, made something click in Kuwabara's head. "You're a kitsune." He said it out loud before he could stop himself. "The kitsune that Kur—" good sense prevailed and he didn't say "that Kurama's been fighting with," managing to change it at the last moment to, "that owns a lot of territory in this town."

"This is Dameon," Dawn explained. "My… husband, so to speak."

Dameon was looking at Kuwabara very intently and Kuwabara had the nasty feeling that his slip up had not gone unnoticed. "I would like to make my displeasure with this procedure quite clear. It is not something one who is expecting a child so soon should attempt. Especially _this_ child."

"My husband who can been annoyingly protective," Dawn added, then said to him, "If you have to be here you might as well help. Please get the box from the back, would you?"

"There's a problem." Amanuma told her as Dameon went to get what she'd asked for with some show of reluctance. "We have almost everything you asked for, but we couldn't figure out what—"

A cardboard box being dropped onto the pavement, everything inside of it clattering, cut him off. Dameon was suddenly standing in front of Dawn again in a defensive posture, his eyes glowing as he glared over Amanuma and Kuwabara's shoulders.

The reason for his abrupt movement became instantly clear when the two psychics felt the aura of a very angry kitsune roll over them from behind. They turned to see Kurama standing under the dull track lighting, his green eyes reflecting the light in a distinctly nonhuman manner, like a cat's does when ones shines a flashlight at it. The anger poured off him in waves, it made his aura strong enough to make the hair of the back of their necks stand up and the hem of his coat flutter.

From inside the car there was the sound of a muffled yelp as Radames ducked down in his seat, out of sight. When the powerful demon is angry and you are not a powerful one yourself, it's a good idea to get out of the way.

"Dameon." Kurama said it so flatly, so without inflection, that it had more weight than if he had screamed it.

"Youko." Dameon returned, in a voice that tried for lightness, but fell a few inches short.

"No. Kurama," he paced forward and, between one step and another, shifted from human to demon. The kitsune spread his arms. "_Now_, I'm Youko." His tail lashed around his ankles angrily, his coat had shifted to a white tunic with him. Now the color of his hair and eyes, and even, a little, the shape of his face made it clear Dameon and he came from similar roots.

"I think…" Dameon's words were heavy with power. "You need to go to sleep."

Youko did not even blink. "I think I need to kill you in the most gruesome and painful way I can think of, but we can't always get our way, can we now?"

"You need to _go to sleep_." He pushed more power behind the words, pushed it so he could feel it swirl around the other kitsune, but he could tell none of it was sinking in as it should be.

He tried again, wordlessly, frowning with effort and met the same failure as before. Finally he recalled the energy with the flick of a hand and made a disgusted noise. "_Plant masters_. You dosed yourself, didn't you? Some sort of plant to keep yourself awake."

"I am no fool to fall for the same trick time after time."

"But I killed your plants."

Youko smiled a thin, tight smile of satisfaction. "Not the ones I carry on my person."

Dameon sighed. "I knew I missed something. But come now, Youko, this is not the place for this." As he spoke, Dameon put a hand back and guided Dawn a little more behind his protection.  
"I think any place would do."

"What happened, Kurama?" Kuwabara demanded. "You didn't explain before you ran out before."

"Who is this?" Dawn was asking Dameon at around the same time. "What did you do to make him so angry?"

"He kidnapped my friend. Ricky." Youko said shortly, more to Dawn than Kuwabara. "And he's done something to her."

"You kidnapped his _friend?_" Dawn glared at her husband. "Dameon! That's underhanded even for you!"

"Dearest, not now." Dameon said, not looking back at her. "This is not the time for this argument." He was watching the other kitsune as if he was just waiting for the other to make a move.

"Yeah," said Amanuma, coming forward. "Hagiri is kinda dying while you guys—"

Kuwabara grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him back, so neither of them were standing between Youko and Dameon anymore. "Not now." He told him. "Trust me. They won't listen. Or care."

"But he's dying!"

"Let the two demons sort out their shit first. The only thing you're going to get is killed if you try to raise a stink now."

Though Amanuma stopped trying to pull out of his grip, he still looked less than pleased.

"How could you _kidnap_ someone?" Dawn was demanding of her husband. "What could he have done to warrant something like that?"

"Dawn, please, not now, not—" he was trying to guide her more behind him but she was not willing to be guided.

And now that she was in full view Youko looked, with raised eyebrows, from her round stomach, to Dameon's anxious face, then back to Dawn again. "Ahhhh." He drew the word out slowly, anger fading briefly in the face of dawning realization. "So _that_ is why you're suddenly so aware of your territory now of all time, when I've been living for months in it. That child will be yours, won't it? Isn't it dangerous for her?"

Reaching out to crush Dawn to his side, ignoring her protest, Dameon snarled, actually snarled, showing very white teeth. "So much as touch her and I will rip you to shreds, Youko."

"I am no monster." Youko said, insulted. "I do not kill _children_." His eyes flickered to Amanuma, then away again. "At least, not anymore."

"You're a kitsune. Treachery and deceit is what we do. I would know." Dameon said. "We have clashed often enough in the past that I will not tolerate you living in my territory with my wife ready to have a child."

"I am not leaving my home simply because you demand it," snapped Kurama. "And this continued harassment will not convince me to leave. Now, what have you done with Ricky?"  
"Nothing at all."

"You said you hurt her when you spoke to me before."

"She had a heart attack when I approached her for a… talk. It was not intentional. I took her to my wife, here. I am no fool, I do not wish to kill a human you are fond of."

"Where is she?"

"Here," Dameon gesticulated at the hospital entrance. "After my wife did what she could for her I had her taken here."

"Room number?" Youko's tone had not lightened in the slightest.  
"Second floor, seven five two two. Or, that was what I was told, I have not been there myself. Now," he shifted positions so, again, he was between Dawn and Youko. "as much as I would love to resolve this here and now, might I say again that this is a place very unsuited to what any sort of further conversation would devolve into. There are too many…" he glanced at his wife, then, more pointedly, at Kuwabara and Amanuma. "Potential casualties. And you, no doubt, wish to check on your partner. Might I suggest a temporary truce and a promise to resume this conversation later?"

Youko considered for a moment. "If I was not so anxious to see to Ricky, I would demand that we settle this here and now. But, considering the circumstances," he looked at Amanuma, "You said Hagiri is dying?"

"He gets closer to it the longer we screw around here." said Amanuma.

"We will attend to this later, then." said Youko to Dameon and, he turned back to the hospital doors. He was melting back into the form of Shuichi even as he turned, white-silver hair becoming red, gold eyes green, white tunic returning to the dark coat.

"Youko." Damon called.

He cast a glance back over his shoulder.

Dameon drew his finger across his cheek. "I'd have that cut looked at. Wouldn't want it to scar, would we?"

For one second it looked like Kurama was going to turn back and try to strangle the other kitsune. But then he clamped down hard on his anger and shook his head. "You always have to get the last word." And then he went back into the hospital.

Amanuma let out the breath he'd been holding without realizing. "Two kitsunes, facing off. That was scary as crap."

Kuwabara agreed. "Let's not ever do that again. Ever."

**---------------------------------------------**

**"Anyone ever heard the expression 'Just dodged a bullet'?"**

**(Unknown)**

**----------------------------------------------**

**TBC**


	9. Unnecessary Complications

**Finder**

Proving that going to college has not completely destroyed all my time to write here is next, and I know _extremely_ belated, chapter. We're actually getting toward the end, believe it or not, it's all wrapping up.

Read and review to prove that you too, like me, have not dropped of the face of the earth. Hard to believe, I know.

Chapter 9 **Unnecessary Complications**

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**Parking Garage**

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Dawn pushed out of her husband's grip and stared up at him with an accusatory expression on her face. "You really kidnapped that woman?"

"Kidnap is such a... hard word," Dameon placated.

"You are so very sleeping on the couch tonight." She said, flatly and Dameon sighed a sigh of resignation.

"Um," Amanuma held up a hand. "Remember the part where my friend's dying?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. We were… a little sidetracked." Dawn reached down to picked up the dropped cardboard book, but Dameon immediately took it from her. "Show me where Hagiri is."

"Wait, about that," Amanuma remembered something from before Kurama had derailed the conversation. "The missing ingredient, the despair's fruit, you said you know what it is."

"Yes, I always forget how cryptic it sounds. You already have it."

"I do?" Amanuma blinked.

"Lucky, you don't have to go get something else," Kuwabara clapped Amanuma on the shoulder.

"Yay. Lucky. For once." echoed Amanuma. "What is this despair's fruit, anyway? It's not a real fruit, right?"

"No. It's the fruit of despair ...what's born from despair." She added when both Amanuma and Kuwabara continued to looked confused.

"… what's born from despair?" asked Amanuma, finally.

Dameon laughed. "Even I know that. Blood is born of despair."

"And tears." added Dawn. "But blood is easier to get."

"Radames," Dameon said, to the raven demon who was still crouched inside the car out of sight. "Park the car."

The raven nodded and restarted the engine, fumbling with the keys.

Amanuma made a hurrying gesture with his hands. "If we have all the ingredients, then let's go! We're on kind of a time limit here!"

---------------------------------------------

**Hospital Room**

**Ricky**

----------------------------------------------

"Hey," said Kurama, slightly uncertain, as he paused in the doorway. "How do you feel?"

"Get in here." Ricky growled. "And stop looking at me like I'm about to break, I'm fine."

"You had a heart attack," Kurama came forward to sit in the chair at her side. "How am I supposed to act?"

"Like it's not your fault."

"Well, technically—"

"No. It's not." Ricky firmly cut him off. "If I was gonna have a heart attack, I was gonna have a heart attack, there's no way around it. Maybe seeing that guy bumped up the schedule a little, but it was gonna happen, one way or another. Hell, I was lucky that it wasn't while I was at home or I probably would've died before someone came across me. My point," she glowered at him. "is that you aren't aloud to blame yourself for me being in this bed, because that's what's written all over your face."

"He was _my_ enemy, Ricky. You where hurt because you knew me."

"Hey, I knew all the risks of hanging out with you, Kurama, and I did it anyway. I don't want to be protected or sheltered for my own good or wrapped up in silk and put on some high shelf. I'm not something you own and have to look after, I'm your _friend_. And I might not be able to beat the crap out of demons like most of your friends but that doesn't mean I'm helpless. So get that pathetic look off your face and go do what you have to do!"

Kurama stared at her for a moment, quite taken aback. "You know…" he said, finally. "You can be quite eloquent when you want to."

She shrugged. "I have my moments. But you go my point?"

"Ricky, the people that I associate with are often unpleasant and frequently unsavory. This might not be the first time you could be caught in the crossfire."

"I'll live with to risk." She said. "Or maybe not, you never know. And if something does kill me, sure cut it into tiny pieces and feed it to your plants, but don't you dare ever blame yourself for me shuffling off my mortal coil. Because that's the last thing I'd _ever_," she emphasized the point with a jab of her finger in his direction, "want."

He held up both hands in a gesture of surrender. "If that's how you wish it. But—"

"Hey! There's no buts allowed here… damn, that didn't sound so stupid in my head." Ricky made a face. "You know what I meant."

"Yes, I do." Kurama said, stifling a smile.

"Good. As long as you get it. I damn hate being left out of the loop when bad stuff's going on."

"I could say the same for you," Kurama countered, but not with any real bite in his tone. "How long have you been having problems with your heart?"

"I haven't, not really. I mean, I was having a little chest pain but I didn't really think much of it. Which was pretty stupid, looking back on it. My family has had a history of bad hearts."

"You tell me you don't need protection and then you go and tell me something like that," Kurama shook his head.

"So I have a bad heart. So what? That doesn't change much. Just means I'll have to cut down on the hotdogs."

"You hate hotdogs."

"Exactly, so no big deal." She picked up a watched from the bedside table and glanced at it. "Hey, you better make yourself scarce, my girlfriend's coming and I'm hoping for smoochies."

"Well, I'll leave you in her capable hands."

---------------------------------------------

**Hospital Room**

**Hagiri**

----------------------------------------------

Hagiri was unconscious again when Amanuma, Kuwabara, Dawn, and Dameon entered the room.

"What took so long?" Mitari demanded, getting to his feet.

"There was this thing," Amanuma made a face. "Kurama showed up and… it was a mess. I'll explain later. What do you need right now, Dawn?"

"Privacy," she said. "This is a difficult process and being watched won't make it any easier."

"What about despair's fruit? The blood?" Amanuma asked.

"I have blood, it'll suffice." She replied.

"Absolutely not." said Dameon flatly. "As if it was not dangerous enough that you insist on attempting to break such a hex in the first place, doing so using your own blood would be doubly dangerous to not only you but the child also." he crossed his arms over his chest.

"We don't have time for this! There's not time for anymore talking!" Amanuma glared at Dameon. "Use my blood if that's what it takes to hurry this thing up." He thrust out a hand.

Dawn dug in the card board box and withdrew a small knife and a vial. Quickly she cut open his finger and let the vial fill halfway before sealing the slice with a brief flicker of power. "That will be enough, thank you, Amanuma. Now, I really do need privacy for this."

After putting the book bag full of gather ingredients down next to the box Amanuma followed Kuwabara out.

Mitari glanced back at Hagiri before he left. "Hurry," he urged Dawn. "He needs that surgery bad."

Dameon wrapped a arm around his beloved and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "Is there anything I can say to dissuade you from trying this?"

"Nothing."

"Then do try to be careful." He said, before he too left, pulling the door closed behind him.

"He says as if I usually don't." Dawn muttered as she began to unpack what she needed.

---------------------------------------------

**Hospital Waiting Area**

----------------------------------------------

"So who's that guy?" Mitari asked Amanuma, nodding at where Dameon sat.

"Apparently that's Dawn's husband."

"Seriously? He doesn't look like the nicest guy."

"He isn't," Amanuma leaned closer to Mitari and lowered his voice. "Remember how Kurama seemed to be having problems with another demon? That's the guy. I think he's kind of evil."

"That's the weirdest thing to think that those two are married. You never know with some people, I guess." He shrugged. "Maybe he's a nice guy… umm, and just hides it really well."

They both turned to look at Dameon, sitting with his head cocked at such an angle that suggested he was listening to something very intently. Suddenly Dameon stood.

"Where are you going?" Kuwabara asked, and it was almost more a demand than a question. In the parking garage he'd seen the amount of power this demon had poured off and had put keeping an eye on him on his agenda for as long as that was possible.

"To get something to drink." Dameon replied neutrally. "My Dawn will be some time in breaking that curse."

Kuwabara watched the kitsune walk away and his sixth sense gave a twinge that felt far too much like foreboding for his own comfort. He wasn't sure where that had come from but he really, really, didn't like it when he got foreboding feelings. Bad crap tended to happen.

Had his range been just a bit wider he would have sensed what Dameon had.

Kurama was just leaving the building.

And Dameon, now that his wife was safely out of the way, was going to take care of the problem that he had been trying to make disappear for quite a while.

---------------------------------------------

**Just Outside the Hospital**

----------------------------------------------

Kurama didn't die only by dint of the fact that his cell phone fell out of his jacket pocket and he reached down for it at the exact moment Dameon leapt for him.

Because of the unconsciously well timed crouch, Dameon overshot his mark and failed to separate Kurama's head from his body in one blow as he'd intended it to. Instead he went completely over Kurama, landing on the pavement in front of him.

Usually in a situation like this Kurama's first move would be to shift into Youko form, but they were still on the sidewalk outside the hospital, and there were enough witnesses that he couldn't risk it. He actually had to stop himself reaching for a plant that could cause damage to innocent bystanders and summoned a sword from a blade of grass. It wasn't the weapon he was the most familiar with, but he would be less likely to to accidentally decapitate a nearby human than if he used the rose whip.

Dameon did not pull a weapon, but as his fingers had rather suddenly acquired claws that had been as concealed in the same manner his true hair and eye color had originally been. He dodged the swipe of Kurama's sword, but was unable to land a blow on his back when he tried for it.

They were drawing attention, whether they wanted it or not, two kitsunes battling it out on the street were not something that went unnoticed. Several had fled, anyone with even minor psychic gifts had sensed the danger and found somewhere else to be. The remaining humans were simply passing by, but even they were crossing to the other side of the street to avoid what appeared to be two maniacs trying to kill each other.

"I thought we were going to settle this at a later time." Kurama set his stance, waiting for the next attack, sword held ready in his right hand.

A few yards away Dameon did a similar thing, readying his claws. "It is later." he smiled a smile that was completely malice. "You are a problem I need to make vanish before you become a danger to my wife and future child."

"I do not kill _children_." Kurama snapped. "If fact, if you had bothered to look into my recent activities at all, you'd notice I hardly kill _anyone_ these days."

"We're kitsunes. We lie. I am not willing to risk everything on your word." Dameon blurred with speed, darting forward but Kurama had years of training with Hiei to fall back on, and Dameon barely had half of Hiei's speed. Dodging him took effort, but he was able to do it, swinging to the side and letting Dameon flash past him. He slashed sideways with his sword and caught Dameon in the ribs, though it was a glancing blow, shallow at best.

Not even stopping to acknowledge the wound Dameon planted one foot and pivoted on it whipping his body around so quickly he crashed into Kurama and threw him off balance, almost off his feet. Dameon took the opportunity to dig his claws into Kurama's arm, and though Kurama regained his balance and retreated quickly, blood was running down his right arm.

With a wince he switched the sword to his left hand, the right hand was going numb, Dameon's claw marks showed white at their depths. He'd hooked his claws as Kurama pulled away to cause maximum damage, the white was bone.

As Kurama tried to put more distance between them Dameon advanced, trying to score another hit, trying to rip his throat out. Instead Kurama slashed out and to the side with his sword, scoring another long slash down Dameon's side that earned a wince from the older kitsune, it was deeper than the first. He staggered back, holding his arm tightly to his side in an effort to stem the blood flow.

"What the hell are you two doing?" said someone from closer than most people would have gotten to the fight.

The voice, so unexpected, so close ,made both of the kitsunes stop their attacks, twisting away from each other as the momentum of their aborted blows made them almost trade places. Once they were balanced, each turned to find the source of the voice.

It was Yusuke Urameshi in all his glory, standing there in his ripped jeans, ungreased hair, and ugly heavy winter jacket. Just behind him was Mengii Montes with her brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and her hands buried in the pockets of her tan jacket, peering around Yusuke with a surprised expression.

Yusuke put his hands on his hips. "I get the urge to tear each other to tiny bits, but _damn_ this is a bad place for it. Couldn't you at least have decided that to do the death match somewhere less obvious, Kurama?"

Rising from his half crouch, Kurama frowned at the former Spirit Detective, "When did you get here? What about Kayko and the baby?"

"They're fine," Yusuke said, "Kuwabara called me and filled me in, I thought you were going to going to let me know if bad crap happens." he gave Dameon a dark look. "And that guy definitely counts as bad crap."

"You were busy." Kurama said, although the excuse sounded hollow, even to him.

"Not _that_ busy. So I used a portal through the Makai, took me only ten minutes. I meet up with her," he nodded at Mengii, "on the way. Still, I didn't expect to find you dueling to the death right out in the open."

"I most definitely did not pick this battlefield." Kurama cast a dark look at Dameon.

The other kitsune missed it, mostly because he was staring at Yusuke, staring at him with something approaching horror. Which was perfectly understandable considering how Yusuke hit the radar to a demon eye.

He looked like the biggest baddest guy come to rip you into little pieces and since he seemed friendly to Kurama, Dameon was probably very very worried right now. He was smart enough to see when he was outmatched and this wasn't a fight he was able to back down from.

"So that's the other fox demon." Yusuke looked at Dameon like he was wondering how easy it would be to knock him through the wall and said to him, "If you keep bugging my friend I'll kill you."

"This is no small matter." Dameon said. "I can not just let this be, I have both a mate and soon to be child to protect. This is not something I can walk away from."

"I can get you're trying to keep your wife safe, but you're going about it the wrong way. I mean, asking probably would have worked just as well."

As Dameon opened his mouth to argue the treachery of kitsunes Kurama interrupted. "This is a very bad place to be arguing," he very pointedly indicated the passers by that were still casting strange glances their way. "Might I suggest we postpone this negotiation once more? It--"

And it was like a psychic bomb went off, leaving the two demons, one half demon, and psychic were left momentarily deaf and blind, shaking their head in an effort to clear them and blinking to try to regain vision.

"What the fuck was that?" Yusuke demanded, holding a hand to his head.

"The curse on Hagiri," said Kurama, quietly. "it's been broken."

Dameon's face showed a brief flash on panic. "Dawn..." and as soon as he said his wife's name he was gone, headed back toward the hospital.

"That is one very in love guy." remarked Yusuke. "And I know crazy in love. Hey, you're bleeding." he directed this last remark to Kurama, who was holding a hand to the claw wounds on his arm.

"We were trying to kill each other, bleeding is inevitable in such situations."

Yusuke seemed to think about that for a moment. "Yeah, probably. At least, most of the death fights I've seen involve blood. I guess we're just lucky that there's not more going around."

"So the bad luck curse is really off Hagiri?" Mengii asked, cautiously. "And here I never thought that would actually work."

"When did you hear about that?" asked Kurama. "Have you been speaking with Mitari and Amanuma?"

A strange looked crossed Mengii's face. "Something like that," she said. And beneath the surface of her mind, something dark stirred with interest. Something dark that did not belong there.

Ebony reached out his influence and took control.

**---------------------------------------------**

**"Madness, you see, is like gravity. All you need is a little push."**

**(The Joker~ Batman- The Dark Knight)**

**----------------------------------------------**

**TBC…**


	10. Until the Morning

**Finder**

I have never had my teeth pulled, but imagine the experience was something like writing this chapter. Happy Holidays, folks.

Well, sorry about that nasty gap and enjoy. Please review, let me know you're still out there. Except… of course… if you're not. But then, if that's the case, how are you reading this?

Chapter 10 **Until the Morning**

* * *

**Just Outside St. Maria's Hospital**

* * *

"So," Yusuke stretched his arms then hooked them behind his head. "No one's actively trying to kill you anymore, what're you going to do now? Go inside?"

"No." Kurama shook his head. "I was on my way out anyway, and I think my presence anywhere near Dameon's… wife might be less than helpful. And," he indicated his bloody sleeve, "I would attract too much attention like this. I cannot afford to waste time with hospitals at the moment."

"I'm going in." said Mengii, and she walked toward the entrance, the others unfortunately too distracted to noticed that her pace was every so slightly stiff, her tone just a little flat.

"You planning on heading back to your place?" Yusuke asked Kurama.

"Yes, I have a lot of planting to do."

"Yeah, I heard about that, but shouldn't you get some sleep? It'll speed that healing."

"It's a nice thought, but I won't be able to sleep, not for at least a day or so I had to drug myself so Dameon couldn't use his power on me. I dosed on the side of caution."

"What's his power?" Yusuke asked.

"He can put people to sleep."

"Doesn't sound so bad."

"And he can make it so they never wake up, Yusuke. Ever."

"Oh. That's definitely got more badass potential. Anyway, if you're going back to your apartment I might as well tag along. I'm pretty sure Kuwabara and the others have things under control where Hagiri is concerned. Plus you're bleeding all over."

"The amount of blood loss is hardly going to be the end of me." Kurama glanced down at the scratches. They were deep enough to show a white gleam of bone, but he had survived having bombs blow his arms and legs to bloody ruin, bit-by-bit, this was nothing compared to that.

"So I worry, sue me. Wait just a second," Yusuke shrugged, then took his cell phone out of his pocket, "I just wanna tell Kuwabara what's going on. See we _keep_ friends in the loop, you know? We don't leave out all this stuff like how we're in the middle of this territorial war and it's getting messy."

"What can I say to convince you that this situation is perfectly under my control?"

"Nada. I just found you in the middle of what could have been a death match. I think you need a little help."

"There's no arguing with you sometimes, Yusuke."

* * *

**Inside**

* * *

Dawn staggered from the hospital room two minutes after the shock wave that announced the hex's breathing made Kuwabara, Amanuma, and Mitari start to their feet. From the room came the stench of burned fur and feathers, and she was as white as a sheet, with purple and white crayon melted over her fingers.

"That was it." she told the three of them. "The curse is gone. I can't do anymore--" there was a brief flicker of power and her eyes rolled up into the back of her head. She collapsed forward, but Dameon was there just in time to catch his wife.

Cradling her in his arms in an almost aggressively protective manner Dameon glowered at them. "I am taking her home. This has been entirely too much excitement for an expectant mother. There's nothing more we can do for the human. So leave us alone."

After Dameon took his wife away a doctor walked up to Mitari. "Is whatever that needed to happen done? We can't hold his spot in surgery any longer."

Mitari glanced up at the doctor, a stocky man with the glimmer of a psychic around him, and replied, "It's finished." and adding in his head , "I hope."

"Good." said the doctor and waved a nurse over. After some quick murmuring with her there was a buzz of activity around Hagiri's room and he was gone, wheeled away.

"That was kind of anticlimactic." Amanuma said. "I was expecting something to blow up at least."

"The best uses of power of subtle ones," Kuwabara said, in a tone that suggested he was quoting someone. "Not everything is all fireworks and shit blowing up."

"Genkai tell you that?"

"Yeah."

"You know, we all don't have to be here." Mitari pointed out. "I mean _someone_ should stick around to make sure nothing goes haywire, but there's no need for all three of us to be here. I know you originally came to help Kurama anyway," he added to Kuwabara, "You probably want to see what he's up to."

"I do, but if you want me to stay I can--"

"Why don't we rock paper scissor it?" asked Amanuma, thrusting his fist forward. "Loser stays, winners leave."

"Sounds fair to me." Mitari said, putting his fist out.

Kuwabara also did so, though he did mutter, "What is this, the Dark Tournament?" under his breath.

He and Amanuma won with scissors, Mitari lost with paper.

"I'm fine with that." he said. "You guys go get some sleep or whatever, I'll get some coffee and settle in."

"Call me if anything goes wrong," Amanuma told him.

"But it won't," Mitari said, "The curse is off, remember? Only good luck now."

Amanuma snorted. "That's true, but nothing is ever this easy. I'll be back tomorrow."

* * *

Ebony saw the two psychics leave the blond in the waiting room and hastily picked up a magazine and had Mengii shield her face with it, so she would not be spotted. He had her sit in a chair behind a plant so that the blond --Mitari, that was what his name was-- couldn't see him.

So what he wanted wasn't nearby.

That was fine, he could be patient.

Ebony was very, very good at waiting.

* * *

**Kurama's Apartment**

**Twenty Minutes Later**

* * *

Kurama took off his coat and draped it over the back of his coach. "Forgive the mess, I've been a bit distracted of late."

"You, messy? The world would come to the end." Yusuke threw his own coat over the back of the coach and frowned at all the pots of dead plants. "That sucks, Kuwabara mentioned that guy had nixed your plants but seeing it is a completely differen--" he paused and Kurama tensed as he sensed what had made Yusuke trail off.

A flicker of energy from deeper in the apartment. But then, a moment later, Kurama recognized the energy and relaxed just as Hiei strolled casually from the kitchen, bowl of ice cream held un-retentively in hand.

"Fox, your window is broken." he said, by way of greeting.

"How'd that happen?" Yusuke asked.

Kurama sighed, having answered this question before, and not that long ago too. "A raven demon threw himself through it. It's something of the long story."

"And there's a dead fox in your freezer," Hiei said. "Why?"

"I forgot about that." he'd put the dead animal there since he'd been too busy at the time to deal with it. "It… well, it's a long story also."

Yusuke raised an eyebrow at him. "Try me. Why's there dead stuff in your freezer?"

"Dameon left it on my doorstep. It was a warning."

"Shit." Yusuke swore. "You didn't think that was bad enough to call me up? That's a nasty threat, and if you're in real trouble I wanna know so I can help!"

"I thought you weren't going to come for a few days," Kurama said to Hiei, ignoring Yusuke for the time being.

In response Hiei shrugged. "I had time off. And I got bored." Which, in Hiei speak, hinted that he might have worried. Just maybe.

"I do _not_ need baby sitters," he told the both of them, knowing he was about to repeat himself, and annoyed at it. "I have this all _under control."_

"You're bleeding." Hiei observed, nodding at the blood trickling down Kurama's sleeve.

"Sure, you have it 'under control'." Yusuke said, his voice placating. "Whatever you say. But we're here, so we might as well make ourselves useful. Where's your first aid kit?"

"Under the sink," said Kurama, as he sat on the back of the couch and carefully rolled his sleeve up to get a better look at the wound. It was deep, bloody, rather painful, but now he could afford to burn the power it took to hurry their healing along.

Hiei watched him from where he leaned against the wall, occasionally spooning up a bit of ice cream but making no comment as to his opinion of the kitsune's recent actions. In the kitchen Yusuke could be heard rummaging around, the sounds of gurgling and water running proclaiming he was doing more than just fetching the first aid kit.

Not too much later he emerged with the kit under his arm and a cup of coffee in each hand. One of these he handed to Kurama. "It's not like it'll can keep you up, since falling asleep isn't an option for you for a while, but I wanted some, so here. Hiei, I don't know your feelings on coffee, but there's more in there," he hook a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the kitchen, "If you want some."

Hiei snorted his disgust and went to claim a seat on the sill of the gaping broken window, the temporary patch apparently destroyed in the process of his entry, his sword held in his lap. He was being a sentry, and not being in any way subtle about it, a demon would have to be very, very stupid to try to break in that way while he sat there.

As Kurama cupped the mug of coffee between his hands for warmth Yusuke leaned over to peer at his arm, poking the wounds gently to see how deep they were.

The gashes weren't half as deep as he expected. "Healing?" he asked.

Kurama nodded. "It's unlikely that I'm going to be going anywhere for a while, with the situation with Dameon at a standstill. I can afford not to worry about power levels for a bit."

"I can't see bone anymore," Yusuke observed.

"Always a fortunate thing." Kurama sipped from the coffee mug, wincing slightly. Yusuke made coffee foul enough to even rival the station's.

Rummaging around in the first aid kit Yusuke fished out a tube of antiseptic and a rolled up bandage. "It was usually you doing this patching up thing in the old days. Now I get to return the favor."

"How… nice." Kurama said, dryly, sipping more coffee and wincing. At the horrible taste, not because Yusuke was poking at his arm.

* * *

About two hours later, in the middle of a sentence, Kurama fell over. Despite the fact that Yusuke was sitting on the arm of the armchair and was thus right next to him, Hiei was the one who stopped the kitsune's forward fall with a hand to his shoulder and tipped him back onto the couch.

"I thought you said he couldn't fall asleep." he said to Yusuke.

"He shouldn't be able to," Yusuke said, "The guy he's fighting with makes people fall asleep so he dosed himself. There's no way he could be sleeping now unless…"

"Unless he got the dosage wrong." Hiei filled in.

"That's a distinctively un-Kurama like thing to do. The whole partner getting kidnaped thing must have really rattled him."

"That is no small miscalculation. Another could get him killed."

Yusuke tugged the blanket off the back of the couch and threw it over Kurama. "Well, that's what we're doing here. Someone's gotta tell him he's being an idiot and overdoing things. Otherwise he'll run off and do reckless stuff all the time." Yusuke gave Hiei a significant look, leaving no doubt just who he had in mind as the 'someone'.

Hiei snorted, "I don't babysit. And he would hate anyone who did."

"Yeah, well, alive but irritated is better than careless and dead."

"Kurama doesn't make mistakes."

"Not unless he's under pressure," Yusuke said. "Like this territory crap. Nothing like having another kitsune trying to outthink you to make a guy nervous."

"He should have just claimed his own territory in the city," Hiei crossed his arms over his chest and glowered. "I told him he was being stupid, not seizing the opportunity to control. If it had been me I would have carved out land of my own long ago, starting with that kitsune."

"Yeah, well, we're all not as homicidal as you." pointed out Yusuke.

* * *

**Across the City**

**Dawn's Café**

**The Apartment On the Top Floor**

* * *

Dameon carefully tucked his wife into the bed, smoothing the thick covers lovingly before reaching to tuck a lock of her dark hair behind her ear.

Then he left her to sleep of the power exhaustion.

While it was true certain aspects of his plan might have slipped from his control, but this new direction events were heading in could be just as pleasing as the original end he had thought of.

"Radames," he called and the raven demon was quickly at his side.

"My Lord?"

"In the morning, there is a message I want you to deliver to our friend, Youko Kurama."

"Another attack, my Lord?" Radames asked cautiously. It was unlike his master to use tactics that had already failed.

"No." said Dameon. "No, this time I believe that we shall try something else. Something much more tedious."

* * *

**"Diplomacy is much more trouble than simply trying to kill each other. That's why we usually try the latter before the former."**

**(Anonymous)**

* * *

**TBC**


	11. Understandings

**Finder**

So. Inspiration. Far weather friend?

Only a few chapters left. Please read and review.

Chapter 11 **Understandings**

* * *

**Kurama's Apartment**

**Next Morning**

**

* * *

**

Kurama didn't remember falling asleep the night before but Yusuke shook him awake some hours later and he could tell it was morning.

"You screwed up the dosage." Yusuke explained shortly. "We let you sleep cause you looked like you needed it but there's this scrawny little raven demon here now and he says he has a message for you."

Rubbing the healing wound on his arm absentmindedly Kurama sat up, "That would be Radames. He works for Dameon."

"That's what I figured. He's in the kitchen right now with Hiei making sure he doesn't get up to anything." Yusuke eyed him critically, "Are you awake enough to talk to him or do want me to just beat the message out of him?"

"No, I think that wouldn't go over well with Dameon. The kitchen you said, right?"

"Yep."

Radames was sitting in one of the kitchen chairs, very nervously watching Hiei, who was seated on the counter. The raven demon had the look of one who is ready to bolt at the slightest hint of violence and when he saw Kurama walk in he visibly flinched.

"You have something to tell me?" Kurama made an effort to keep his tone pleasant, he had a suspicion that a sharp tone would make Radames die of panic.

"Yes, My Lord has told me deliver a message. He wishes to negotiate."

"Really?" Kurama raised an eyebrow. "_Now_ he wants to negotiate? After all of this?"

Appearing not to notice the sarcasm in the last bit Radames nodded. "Yes, sir. My Lord wants no more danger to his mate and so wishes to settle this matter as soon as possible. Should you agree to speak with him he will be waiting at the café. He has told me that you know the one he means."

"The one he owns and lives over, yes, I do know. Tell him that I agree to his terms and to expect me quite soon."

Radames' expression brightened, he had obviously expected to have to do some persuading before getting an agreement, current events had just made his day much better. "So I may, err… leave, sir?"

With a sigh Kurama tried to lighten his voice, hiding the annoyance he felt at the demon's master, talking harshly to Radames felt too much like kicking a puppy. "Yes, Radames. You may leave."

The raven demon rose so hurriedly from his chair he almost overturned it. Hiei rolled his eyes. Both Yusuke and Kurama watched Radames make a wide arch around them and bolted for the door, which he opened only to reveal Kuwabara, who was standing with his fist upraised to knock.

"You're Dameon's lackey, aren't you?" Kuwabara asked, looking down at Radames, who appeared to be pinned to the spot with terror.

"He's on his way back to his master now," called Kurama from the kitchen. "Let him go and I'll explain."

"I wasn't keeping him from going," Kuwabara said, coming into the apartment and nudging Radames farther out. "Head out then, kid."

For a moment Radames stood at the doorway, until the door was closed on him and he started, coming back to himself and fleeing to somewhere where he could transform and fly away.

"Why'd you call him 'kid'?" Yusuke asked Kuwabara, who shrugged.

"He just seems kinda young to me. Anyway, why was he here and why'd you let him go?" Kuwabara came into kitchen and took the overturned chair from the floor. Righting it he sat.

"Apparently Dameon wants to negotiate now." explained Kurama, shortly. "He'll be expecting me not long after Radames delivers the message of my agreement. It would be nice to end this matter."

Hiei slipped off the counter. "Don't even think of going alone."

Kurama sighed. "I would never do something so foolish as to walk into enemy territory without any backup. I would be glad of any help you are willing to give me."

With a laugh Kuwabara quickly abandoned his chair, "As if we'd let you go alone."

Yusuke nodded agreement, "Besides, shouldn't we get going? We've got a scary guy to argue with."

"You know if this was the old days," Kuwabara said thoughtfully, "we'd be setting off to fight some huge battle for the fate of the world against this ultimate bad guy. Now look at us, off to watch Kurama _negotiate_."

"Times change." said Yusuke.

* * *

**Amanuma and Mitari's Apartment**

**

* * *

**

Fumbling in his pocket Amanuma eventually managed to extricate his cell phone from the jacket he'd hung on the door handle. "Whazat?" he asked whoever was calling.

"Amanuma?"

"Mmm?"

"This is Mitari, are you awake?"

"Only if I have to be. Wait," a memory surfaced in Amanuma's half asleep mind. "You're at the hospital. Did something happen?"

"Sort of. But not something bad!" Mitari said hurriedly. "Actually it's great news. A nurse just told me that not only is Hagiri out of surgery but overnight he's recovered enough that we're allowed to go in and see him. Do you want me to wait until you get here to go in?"

Amanuma snapped fully awake. "Yeah! Just give me a few minutes, I'll be right over."

"Hurry. I want to see if it, you know, _worked_. And be careful. Don't want to run into those guys wanting to talk to Hagiri on the way."

"Yeah well, if it worked, we might not have to worry about that anymore."

"About time."

* * *

**St. Maria's Hospital**

* * *

Mitari grinned when he saw Amanuma. "Any guys in dark suits give you trouble?"

"None at all." Amanuma returned the grin. "This is much better. We should have gotten this curse broken ages ago."

"Yeah, but my bag is never going to be the same again," Mitari held up his book bag, which the leftover ingredients from the hex removal had been dumped. When he unzipped it the unappealing smell of melted wax and burnt rabbit hair wafted up. "I think I'm buying a new one before classes."

"Damn. _Classes_." Amanuma groaned. "My chem class was last night. My professor told me she'd kill me if I missed another class."

"Tell her your friend was in the hospital. Though leave out how he got shot."

"That might work if I also leave out the bad luck hex, the ingredient searching, and the crazy kitsunes." The grin returned to Amanuma's face, "We really did it. We saved him."

The cheerfulness was infectious, Mitari felt him own lips twitching into a smile, "Guess his good luck really does pull him through."

"One way or another, I suppose." Amanuma glanced across the waiting room at the pair of doors that led to the rest of the hospital. "We should go see him."

"Agreed. You know, it was cool to be able to actually _do_ something this time, instead of sitting around watching everybody else do stuff. We pulled this thing off on our own."

"We did ask Kurama for help but you're right, we did. Which is pretty awesome that we could put together a solution like this."

"Guess that means we've finally become something like adults. Responsibility and all."

Amanuma laughed. "Anything but that. Anyway, let's not stand around patting ourselves on the back, we should go."

"I can't wait to tell Hagiri his curse is broken."

"Me neither."

Together the two of them walked further into the hospital.

* * *

**Dawn's Café**

**

* * *

**

It would have been an understatement to say Dameon was in a less than pleasant mood. A vast, vast understatement. Negotiation was a tediousness he had never liked, although it was an unavoidable progression of events.

At least he had the advantage when it came to the meeting place. The entire building, café, bar, and apartment had long been wrapped in the strongest anti-violence wards his wife could cast. The mere thought of a violent act would send the thinker hurtling out the door. However as the caster was his wife he enjoyed a certain immunity to those wards, something that would give him a distinct advantage over-

_Click-click._

The sound of a shotgun being cocked from behind him made Dameon rolled his eyes and turn to glare at the short man sitting the counter. As for the man, who was the bartender at the bar downstairs and a long-time friend of his wife's, he glared back at him, resting the shotgun across his lap in a distinctly threatening manner.

"Is it really necessary for _you_ to be here?" Dameon demanded.

The bartender continued to glare at him, then jerked a thumb upwards, toward the apartment.

"Dawn asked you to be here?" Dameon sighed. "She should be asleep. But she would awaken just long enough to give me a babysitter. I don't suppose I could persuade you to let me have this little debate without your… supervision?"

The bartender snorted.

"I thought not." It was very like his wife to send someone to keep him in check. And this man was a very apt babysitter, his occupation as bartender meant that Dawn had spelled him to also be immune to the anti-violence wards too. This near negated his advantage of ground, a shotgun shell between his shoulder blades might not kill him but it would certainly slow him down. And smart quite a bit.

Instead of arguing further Dameon called, "Radames?"

"Yes, my Lord?" Radames started upright from the stool he had been seated on.

"Our guests should be arriving soon, yes?"

"Any moment, my Lord."

"I see. Then go sit with Dawn in the meantime. If this goes disastrously I want her at least to escape harm."

"Do you think it will come to that, my Lord?"

Dameon let a smirk spread across his face. "Oh, I doubt that very much. But I suppose we'll see soon enough. Now go."

* * *

Kurama did arrive not long after that, along with the remainder of his old team, which Dameon eyed with suspicion.

"I had no idea you were bringing such… guests with you." Dameon said as he placed both hands flat on the counter in front of him.

"They would not be left behind." Kurama replied mildly, not glancing backward as Kuwabara snorted.

"I find it odd you would come to peace negotiation with people who have such reputations. I might wonder at your intentions."

"I see no reason for you to comment on my companions when you yourself have lined the roofs for a block around this building with people in your pay."

A smile touched Dameon's lips and he gestured for Kurama to have a seat at the counter in front of him. "I see you haven't lost your sharp eyes."

"I might not be a thief anymore but that does not mean I have lost my edge." Kurama took the stool, Kuwabara and Yusuke seats at the nearest table. Hiei perched on the edge of the same table with his katana across his lap. "Who might this be?" Kurama asked, nodding at the bartender, who was sitting on the counter a little further down with his shotgun across his lap in manner that mirrored Hiei.

"Think of him as our mediator." Dameon gave the man a a dark look. "He's here on my wife's behalf to make sure I don't misbehave."

"I see. How wise of her to think of such a thing." Kurama said.

"Indeed. Now," Dameon leaned back against the shelves of pots and teas and crossed his arms, "to business."

"I am not moving." Kurama said flatly.

Over at the table Hiei winced. Kurama had said the words as if he was dealing the first blow in a fight.

"I probably would have consented to vacating your territory had you approached me and explained your situation from the beginning but you have made it a matter of pride now. Which means backing down is not an immediate option."

"I see." Dameon considered Kurama with a slight frown. "You realize you are much more rational that you were in the Makai. No less devious, but more rational and willing to listen instead of fight. I had no idea you had changed so."

"Then you did not do enough research into the matter before making the opening attacks." Kurama snapped. "That is hardly my fault."

"You cannot fault me for making a reasonable assumption of your character and acting on it." Dameon snapped right back. "Had you been as you were in the Makai, _Youko_, and I had approached you with this sort of request you would have laughed in my face. And then one day I would have returned home to find my wife dead or held to ransom while the child was in danger."

"I don't hurt children."

Dameon laughed. "How noble. It interests me to see that you can still lie with a straight face. And we both know that was a lie."

A flicker of anger passed through Kurama's eyes before he gained control of his face again. "The exact change in my nature is not what I came here to debate with you, Dameon."

"True, true. But all the same, you can see why I do not want you on my territory, no matter how much you claim you have changed."

"I am not moving."

"I must demand that you do."

"I must point out that you have no authority over me. You are neither my liege lord nor my 'landlord' and I have no reason to care what you demand I must do."

Back at the table Yusuke rolled his eyes and muttered to Kuwabara, "I think this is gonna to take a while."

* * *

**St. Maria's Hospital**

**

* * *

**

Hagiri looked surprisingly well, considering all he'd been through in the last twenty-four hours. He was actually sitting up, pillows stuffed behind him to keep him that way. There was color in his face again and though he was hooked up to several IVs, he didn't look like he'd been in intensive surgery not that long ago.

"You look great!" Amanuma said, as he sat on the side of the bed, Mitari took the one chair.

"That's what they tell me," Hagiri said, with only a hint of weakness in his voice. "I think I actually heard they use the words 'miraculous recovery'. Which I thought was something they only said on TV shows." he smiled, and it was genuine. "Lucky me, eh? Finally."

"Yeah," Amanuma agreed. "I mean, you look... not like you got shot a couple of times and bled all over. Which is great."

"You have no idea." said Hagiri.

"You're in a good mood," Mitari commented.

Hagiri shrugged. "I am. I survived almost dying again and… well… this is going to sound stupid."

"I don't know about that, I've seen and heard some really stupid things today," Amanuma said. "Like that mess that Kurama's in. So talk, it can't be as stupid as everything else."

"When I was busy trying not to die I had one of those," Hagiri frowned snapping his fingers a few times, "What's the word in English? Damn, it's… oh, that's it. An epiphany. One of those moment of clarity things. I've figured out what I want to do."

"What do you mean?" Amanuma frowned at him. "Weren't you doing something already, what with the assassination thing?"

"Not really. I've always just sort of seen what comes along and gone with it. Just like with Sensui back then." he shrugged again with a bit of a wince for pulled wounds. "That's how I've always been. But this… well I wondered what people that end up with problems like mine do. Not all of them have two friends who are willing to go to all the trouble to break their curse."

"We never told you what we were doing," Amanuma protested. "How did you know?"

"I worked it out. It's not like it was too hard to put two and two together and figure out why I was suddenly lacking my bad luck streak."

"Well, we were kind of planning to make it a surprise." Mitari said. "But whatever, what was it you meant before, help people like you?"

"People who need a curse broken, people who're having demon trouble," Hagiri made a vague gesture with a hand, "That sort of thing. I've seen enough to know that there's a lot of issues of that kind out there. I could make a decent business."

"So you'll be like one of those private investigators?" Mitari asked.

"No, wait," Amanuma interrupted, "He'll be a detective! An underworld PI!"

"There seems to be lots of that going around. Everybody's a detective these days." Hagiri muttered. "By the way," he added in a more normal tone, "Have I thank you yet for breaking the curse?"

"Nope." Amanuma said.

"But we weren't really doing it for a thanks." Mitari quickly added. "We just wanted to make sure you didn't get yourself killed through random bad luck."

"Well, thanks anyway. I appreciate it."

Both Amanuma and Mitari shrugged that thanks off, almost at the same time.

"So does this mean you're going to be staying around?" Amanuma asked. "To run a business you're going to need to be in one place for longer than a few days and New York is as good a place as anywhere else."

"I would like to set up business here but… there are a few things I have to settle first, out west."

"Yeah, it would be a bit of a business deterrent if those guys in black suits keep trying to kill you," Amanuma said and added in a lower tone, "and anyone who seems to know you."

"They were giving you trouble?" Hagiri winced. "I didn't mean to bring it to you guys."

"You never do." Mitari said in a tone the shrugged the matter off. "It's okay. And, besides, that should be changing now, shouldn't it?"

That made Hagiri grin one of his rare grins. "Yeah. Things should be taking a turn for the better."

And then a nurse walked in, caring a tray that she put down on the side table. "Visiting time is almost over," she told Amanuma and Mitari firmly. "You should go and let him get some rest."

Both got to their feet, Mitari collecting his bag. "We'll come see you tomorrow," Amanuma told Hagiri as they moved toward the door.

"Yeah, feel better soon and all that." Amanuma gave him a wave and then they were both gone.

"They your family?" the nurse asked.

"No. Friends." he replied. "Good ones."

"Ah." said the nurse and made no further comment as she went about her work.

Ten minutes later she left and Hagiri sighed, leaning back against his pillows. After a moment he glared at the door and said, "Alright Ebony, I can sense you out there, you might as well come in."

* * *

**"I'm the only one who can stop him."**

**(Tokito~ Wild Adapter, vol 6)**

* * *

**TBC**


	12. Unmistakable Endings

**Finder**

What can I say after such a long break? Sorry, folks, here's the ending at last. Hope you enjoyed and please let me know what you think.

Chapter 12 **Unmistakable Endings**

* * *

**St. Maria's Hospital**

**

* * *

**

Mengii stood in the hospital room without looking at him, her eyes completely blank, and when she spoke her voice was not hers. "How did you know I had taken this body?"

"I sensed that woman out there. And then I put two and two together." Hagiri didn't even bother trying to sit up, he knew he wouldn't be able to. "Drop the body. She's the acquaintance of a kitsune who wouldn't appreciate you possessing her."

"A kitsune?" There was a touch of apprehension in the voice. "Very well, then." Smoke streamed from Mengii's mouth, and she crumpled like a rag-doll as the smoke formed the outline of a man, which quickly solidified into flesh.

"I remember killing you." Hagiri said, though the calm in his voice probably had more to do with painkillers than actual calm. "There's this really clear memory of that. But… it's weird. I don't remember anything else I did after that for a while."

"You caught up to me in the jungle." said the dark man, "Too soon."

"That was a false memory than," he's started to suspect so over the days. "No wonder I kept going over that in my head, it wasn't real and I _knew_ it." All those dreams, it had been his own mind trying to tell him something.

"False memories deteriorate over time. It was only a matter of time before you realized the truth." Ebony advanced one hand extended, "I have laid my Ivory to rest in the earth and thought long about joining her. …I do not want to die, not yet. And I know those such as you. You will not rest until you kill me in revenge for what I did to you."

"That's true. I wouldn't have." He eyed the outstretched hand. "You're going to try to strangle me, aren't you?" his voice the picture of resignation. "It seems like everyone either shoots me or strangles me."

"That was my plan, as you are in no condition to stop me currently." Ebony's large hand clamped down on the human's neck like a vice, stopping all airflow instantly.

But Hagiri, despite the fact that he had appeared to be doing nothing, had actually been slowly working the IV needle out of his arm on the side away from Ebony. With the dark man concentrating on his task he didn't notice Hagiri bringing his arm up and around.

Even though the word was rapidly narrowing down to a little point of vision Hagiri was able to put the touch of power he needed to into the needle, then, just when his body was about to fall into unconsciousness, he brought it down. No normal human could have been sure that the needle would hit the dark man right in the eye, but Hagiri had never missed in his life, even before his power had made itself known to him.

He stabbed the needle deep into Ebony's eye, driving it as far in as he could. The hand around his neck tightened momentarily, and then went absolutely slack. Ebony stiffened, then exploded back into the back smoke that made up his body. It swirled frantically for a few seconds, getting thinner and thinner, until it dissipated completely.

Dropping the needle, which was clean of any kind of blood or gore, strangely enough, Hagiri sighed. "It's finished." he murmured, glad of that. His throat felt like it had been almost crushed, but cautious examination with his fingers told him that it was fine.

One of the machines next to him had started to keen urgently, clearly less than thrilled that it was no longer being fed information. It wasn't long before a nurse in very pink scrubs poked her head into the room. "What happened?" she exclaimed, seeing Mengii on the floor.

"I don't know." Hagiri lied, even under severe influence of painkillers it wasn't hard to make up a story. "She just walked in here and collapsed. I, uh, pulled this out trying to get up and do something." He held up the IV and contrived to look guilty.

"Stay right there." the nurse told him. "You're in no condition to help anyone, honey." Quickly checking that Mengii both had a pulse and was breathing easily the nurse ducked back into the hallway to call an orderly. After the orderly took Mengii away to be put in her own room and examined the nurse replaced the IV needle with a fresh one. She carefully put the IV back into his arm.

"That's odd," she held up the needle she had removed. "This is bent. It takes a lot to do that normally." She raised an eyebrow at him but he shrugged just enough so it could be seen but not enough to hurt. "Alright," the nurse gave him a pat on the arm. "No more trying anything. Just sleep, you'll need it."

"Sure," he replied, just a little fuzzily.

The nurse left, pausing only at the doorway to trace what seemed to be a rune on the doorjamb. Hagiri sensed a subtle shield go up, it felt protective, like a ward. With one last nod to him the nurse disappeared into the hall.

"Huh." said Hagiri, too tired to make an observation further than that. Then he settled down and went to sleep.

* * *

**Dawn's Café**

**An Hour Later**

**

* * *

**

The bartender brought down a hand on the bar between the two kitsunes with a smack and a flurry of sparks. It was a well timed move, both demons had been scowling at each other, and something about the tension in the air hinted that tension was about to explode into violence. Thankfully the sudden interruption had the effect of defusing the situation; both demons flinched back from the violently sparking arm.

The man nodded at them, clearly satisfied at the result, and withdrew back down the bar to his former spot.

He had left a scorch mark on the wood where his hand had come down, which Dameon prodded with a finger. "Barbarian lightning rod." he muttered

The debate between the two of them had not been going well, neither of them wanted to be the one to back down and neither would give the other what they wanted. Even after an hour of crossing preverbal swords no real progress had been made.

Finally Kurama sighed and played the card he had been holding the entire time. "How about I rent the land my apartment building stands on?"

Dameon snorted, "That would only be acceptable if you swore an oath as one of my servants, which I doubt you will accept."

"What sort of oath?" Kurama asked, unwilling to discard the idea. "I mean, precisely what would it entail?"

"A blood oath to me," Dameon said airily, "It would state that you will make no attempts on my life and serve me should I call on you. And technically I would give you and any of your blood a certain amount of protection, in the unlikely event that you would need it, in return. Those are the usual terms I oath my servants under."

"I could live with that." Kurama said and, seeing Dameon's surprised expression raised a finger, "On certain conditions, that is."

"You really _have_ changed. The Youko Kurama I knew a long time ago would never allow another to claim authority over him."

"I grew up." Kurama explained shortly. "Sometimes you have to do things you do not like to simply to get what you want."

"Indeed." Dameon laced his fingers on the bar in front of him. "Now, about your 'rent'. The return of my catch of stolen goods, which I know you have, will do for payment this time."

"Good." Kurama replied. _Because I certainly don't want it, keeping that much treasure in one place is asking for trouble. The fool._

"Along with-"

Kurama stopped him with an upraised finger. "Don't even. I am distinctly not in the mood to assuage your greed. The return of your goods is quite enough payment for a year's use of your land."

"Then your further rent," Dameon went on, appearing undisappointed at the setback.

"I do think a 'favor' could be arranged as payment."

"The oath you would take would swear you to serve to me; I should be able to call on you at any time."

"Ah, but I did mention conditions," Kurama pointed out. "I have no wish to take part in most of the things I have heard you are currently involved in. But what I am offering is my service once a year, as payment."

"Why ever would I accept what I already have?" Dameon asked, languidly.

"Because it is that or nothing." Kurama snapped. "One favor once a year, and," he added, after a moment's thought, "I get choice over which favor I accept. I _am_ a member of the law enforcement of this city, there are things I cannot do."

Dameon was silent for a moment, one could almost see him turning over the proposition in his mind as he tapped him fingers on the bar. It seemed almost an eternity before he nodded. "Very well. That, I think, will be acceptable with one other condition."

" …what?"

"Simply a security clause. You do not go near this café without prior request or permission."

"That I accept as long as it applies to my apartment building as well."

"Only fair and reasonable. You'll find me a benevolent master."

Kurama's eyes flickered just a little at the word 'master', but he hid any other sign of distaste. I_ don't like the idea of being oathed as a servant to him… but the deal is too good to let go. I really don't have any other other choice._ "I am glad we could come to an agreement." he said.

"Took you guys long enough," Yusuke grumbled from where he was sitting. He stood and stretched. "I'm starving. Anyone feel like Chinese?"

"How about fast food?" Kuwabara got up too, unfolding his long legs from under the table. "I could eat a horse."

Hiei, on the other hand, said nothing, he simply raised an eyebrow at Kurama, silently asking if he was really alright with this. In response Kurama could do nothing but shrug.

This was the only solution they could find and, besides, anything was better than an all-out battle against another kitsune.

Ten minutes later they were leaving, Kurama with one arm bandaged. Blood oath required the of spilling of blood, though not all that much.

"You know," Yusuke remarked, "I like this way a whole lot better than the massive battle thing. Next time somebody tries to kill us all I'll have to remember this."

"Usually when people try to kill us they're crazy." Pointed out Kuwabara. "It's hard to reason with crazy."

"Yeah, but we could try."

"Right, and get ourselves almost blown to bits."

From then on the conversation descended into amiable bickering as they continued down the street, making a beeline for the nearest fast food place. Right behind them walked Hiei and Kurama.

"His servant?" Hiei asked. "Really?"

Kurama rubbed the bandage on his arm, "Look at it this way, while I'm in service to Dameon I can keep tabs on what he's up to. And I have relative freedom now."

Hiei, who chafed under even the rather loose rein of Mukuro's service, snorted.

And the four of them continued on to find something to eat.

**

* * *

Epilogue #1 Menou and Hagiri**

**St Maria's Hospital**

**Three Hours Later**

**

* * *

**

The butterfly demon slipped into the hospital room on almost silent feet. She had planned to be in and out, but the fact that Hagiri was awake derailed her plan slightly.

"You survived." Menou said.

"You sound surprised." Hagiri replied.

"Well, humans," she shrugged, "They kill rather easily."

Placing a hand on his chest, which was aching, Hagiri said, "They do. I'm just… strangely lucky."

"That you are. Remember that one shot you got off before those bodyguards broke in on us?"

"It hit, didn't it?" The lack of surprise in Hagiri's voice made Menou deflate slightly.

"Well, yes, actually. Color me all kinds of surprised because I know that was a random shot but apparently it did the job."

"I'm a lucky person." Hagiri said, a statement of fact that made him smile slightly to himself.

* * *

Menou reached into her jacket and withdrew a thick envelope. "This would be for you."

Taking it from her Hagiri found it contained money, quite a good amount of it. "What's this?"

"Your cut of the reward." Menou explained. "As promised."

"My cut, huh?" He weighed the envelope in his hand. This much money would go a long way in his plans. "Thanks then."

"Don't mention it. I'm just glad to wash my hands of the whole affair. Now, I'm out of here, I have a job to get to." she waved over her shoulder on the way out. "Good luck on the whole 'giving up the business' thing."

"How did you know about…" but she was already gone before he could finish the sentence.

**

* * *

Epilogue #2 Kurama and Ricky**

**St Maria's Hospital**

**Two Days Later**

**

* * *

**

"Are you sure you feel alright?"

"I swear, Chi, if you ask me that again I'm going to hit you." Ricky gave him a murderous look which changed quickly to a softer expression, "Hey, thanks for picking me up."

"It's no problem, really. But what about-"

Ricky interrupted him with a shake of her head. "We're on the rocks."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not a big deal. She's just freaked on my behalf. Anyway, did you manage to clean up that mess?"

"I did."

"You don't sound too thrilled about it."

"I had to make an agreement I'm still not sure if I like."

"Well, you do want you've gotta." Ricky turned to fix him with a wicked smile as they passed out of the hospital and onto the street. "I've got some great stories to cheer you up."

"Please no." Kurama said, before she could launch into the undoubtably raunchy story.

"You're no fun."

**

* * *

Epilogue #3 Dawn and Dameon**

**Dawn's Café**

**One Month Later**

**

* * *

**

Dameon stared down the vase of flowers that had been left on his building's doorstep. Finally, deciding that there was no harm in looking, he plucked the card from the arrangement. It read:

_Congratulations on the safe birth of your son. Do let me know when you decide what to call him._

_-K_

He scowled and crumpled the note, going inside without taking the flowers with him.

Some hours late Dawn would come to out to take the flowers in without comment.

**

* * *

Epilogue #4 Amanuma, Mitari, and Hagiri**

**Street**

**Four Months Later**

**

* * *

**

Madame Sabrina closely inspected Mitari's hand, her brow creasing. "Hmmm." she said.

Mitari resisted the urge to ask, "Hmmm, what?" but only barely.

"This is a very interesting case." the self-proclaimed psychic traced on of the lines on his palm.

"How so?" Mitari asked.

"You," Madame Sabrina looked dramatically up at him, "Are about to enter a period of great fortune and luck."

"Oh," said Mitari. "I know who's coming to visit.

* * *

He headed back to the apartment, stopping by Amanuma's work to see if he was off, which he was. They both trudged up the steps to their floor and were completely unsurprised to find Hagiri seated on the top step, clearly waiting for them.

"I told you so," Mitari told Amanuma, who elbowed him.

"How's the helping people business?" Amanuma asked Hagiri.

"Good, especially out here." Hagiri replied. "I was thinking of finding a place if the market's going to be this nice."

"Hey, that's great." Mitari said. "But how have you, you know, been _feeling_ lately."

Hagiri grinned at them, "Lucky." he said.

**

* * *

Epilogue #5 Kurama and Hiei**

**Kurama's Apartment**

**Two Weeks Later**

**

* * *

**

As she passed him in the hallway of his building Mrs. Abriseio gave Kurama a wave, "Your admirer is back, Mr. Minamino." she told him in conspiratorial tones. "And such pretty flowers too! You're so lucky."

"Aren't I?" Kurama smiled back at her. When he reached his door he scooped up what was in front of it. Once inside he eyed the small, potted miniature rosebush he held (there was no note, of course) with a bit of amusement. "I do think," he said to the empty apartment, "That that whole affair gave Hiei ideas." He set the rosebush on his windowsill. "Though that's not necessarily a bad thing." He added.

* * *

**The End**


	13. Notes

**This is the chapter of notes that I promised, a load of things about Finer and what went into it. I hope it doesn't get to tedious to read. Here we go:**

**1) PLOT**

This is the story that wasn't supposed to exist. Originally I planned to end things with the events of 'Seeker', but as I was planning the second half of the story I thought about trying to continue on with Mitari and Amanuma trying to break the hex on Hagiri. But that alone wasn't enough to make a fic out of.

It wasn't until later, in a conversation with my original Editor, that the idea that shaped the second half of 'Finder' formed. We were talking about a solo story we're working on, that Dameon and Dawn and several others hail from, and since both Dameon and Kurama were kitsunes and both lived in New York in around the same time frame we started throwing out ideas about them meeting. We knew sparks would fly. And possibly lots of other things, like appendages.

So the twofold nature of this story sprung up, once I figured out I wanted it to be Dawn that would take off the hex on Hagiri and that Kurama would have his hands full with Dameon.

**Plot Structure:**

From the beginning there were supposed to be two sides to this that would toward the end reconnect. One the one hand, there's Amanuma and Mitari's quest, then on the other hand there's Kurama's territorial issue.

Each was going to deal with one half of the couple Dawn and Dameon, who we weren't supposed to know were a couple, but probably most people figured it out early on which was something I hadn't anticipated.

Overall I just wanted something different from the first two, which this most certainly is.

**2) CHARACTERS**

**Cannon Characters:**

**Kurama:**

As usual there's always a lot to do with Kurama. It was interesting writing him being out of his league with Dameon. In the show we sort of take it for granted that Kurama either more powerful or smarter than any opponent he goes up against and it was nice to see a situation where that doesn't happen. Additionally the animosity between Kurama and Dameon was wonderful to write, it would be wonderful to try to see these two work together.

In this fic Kurama has finally found a bit of piece in his human world vs. demon world choice by realizing that it isn't something he needs to worry about in the present and will work itself out in the fullness of time.

**Yusuke, Kuwabara, an Hiei:**

We didn't see a lot of these three, but I sure enjoyed bringing them in when I could. There's really nothing like writing the whole gang together to make things pick up the pace. I felt a little bad for the boys at the end when there was no massive battle for them but as Yusuke observes, it's better than way sometimes.

**Sniper- Hagiri:**

There's something about Hagiri that makes him really fun to write, it probably has something to do with the fact that I've made him kind of snarky. After his big South America adventure he was supposed to be rather rattled, since Ebony messed with his brain so the Hagiri Amanuma and Mitari meet at the beginning of the story is very different from the one at the end. This was a real change in Hagiri, since he's finally figuring out what he wants to do with his life now that he doesn't constantly have to dodge random bits of bad luck.

His adventures as a PI are something I want to get into eventually.

**Gamemaster- Amanuma and Seaman- Mitari:**

These two got exactly what they both wanted, they managed, between them, to pull off helping their buddy without having to call in the big guns (Yusuke and his gang) to take over for them. That was what I really wanted these two to realize in this story, that just because they aren't powerful or fighters that doesn't really mean they can't do anything.

They play great off of each other, as I tend to make Mitari a little more serious and reserved while Amanuma is a lot more likely to say exactly what he has on his mind without thinking about it first.

**Kido:**

It was kind of cool to pull a random character from Chapter Black and use him again. Character cameos are great fun.

**Non-cannon Characters:**

**Mengii Motes:**

Mengii is a useful character when you need someone to find something, relay a message, or just be in the right place at the right time. Which is exactly why I keep using her.

**Dawn:**

I always thought you had to be careful when adding a new character who as the potential to be really important to the plot because people ultimately read a fanfic for the canon characters not the new ones. Thus Dawn made me really nervous because she does contribute largely to the plot. But all seemed to go pretty well, especially when the side of the story with Dawn and the side of the story with Dameon collided.

**Dameon:**

I never feel bad about adding new villains, since a lot of the time that's what a fanfic needs to make it tick, some unknown bad guy doing something threatening. But Dameon is such fun to add to the plot because he and Kurama hit sparks off each other rather easily. It was great to have a character who could intimidate Kurama (and wasn't Karasu) plus seeing two kitsunes be wily to each other was great fun.

For those of you who were frustrated about how round-aboutly Dameon went at confronting Kurama (I was among those numbers, trust me) I add to excuse Dameon gave with the simple fact they're kitsunes. Wily always comes before covert with them.

**Ebony:**

Is Ebony dead? This was a question I was asking even myself as I was writing the first part of the story. Eventually I decided that no, he wasn't. He changed his mind. Why? Because that made things more interesting and I like it.

I was kind of sad to see Ebony die, though he did survive longer than I meant him to, all the same, at least he got a intense death.

**Radames, Twilight, The Bartender:**

These are all characters borrowed from the same story of mine of which Twilight is the main character. Funnily enough the Bartender's name in that story is actually The Bartender which is kind of hard to explain for a cameo appearance. There's not much to say about these three, except I rather surprised when so many people caught on to Radames' appearance with both Dawn and Dameon. It's great to see people paying attention.

**Ricky Halash:**

Here we get the first hints of the heart problems that the end of 'Seeker' reveals eventually kill Ricky. That won't be for some time yet but I wanted to show the early warning signs so Kurama and she could have that very significant talk about not coddling her.

I like Ricky because she just is what she is, no pretense, no lies, she's just Ricky. Which can be endlessly amusing when it comes to those stories of hers. I had to sneak in on last reference to that.

**3) WHERE TO GO AFTER THIS**

My original plan was for another story after this, something along the lines of:

"A bank robbery by a group of skilled demons interrupts Kurama and Dameon in the middle of a hostage and goods negotiation in a bank lobby and for the sake of the humans caught in the crossfire the two kitsunes have to work together to subdue the thieves. Includes Hagiri and Hiei."

And I still like the idea, the whole getting Kurama and Dameon to cooperate thing could be pretty fun, but I'd like to take a break from this universe for a while. Maybe I'll come back to it, maybe I won't I'm not really sure at this point. The only thing I can tell you for sure a this point is that I will continue to write fanfiction, I enjoy it far to much to stop now.

Thank you for following me all this way and hope you enjoyed the story as much as I did!

Bye!

**~GRIntelligencer (formerly SharkGirl)**


End file.
